22 THEHORSE. 



cattle. With youi permission then, kind reader, lo use an expression familiar to tha 

 votaries of the chase, let us " try back.'''' 



While the grovernnient of one man would be a dangerous experiment until we can 

 have " Angels in the shape of men to govern us," yet when the monarch happens to 

 be enlightened and virtuous, then the more absolute his power the better, perhaps, for 

 his country. Even bad ones, sometimes by freak or passion, confer great good on 

 particular interests or branches of industry. NVc have already seen liow, under the 

 reign of William tlie Conqueror, the munificence of a subject gained him renown as a 

 patriot by tlie introduction of Spanish horsts into England. .'>ubsequently, King John, 

 with all his bad qualities, established for himself at least cue claim to honourable 

 notoriety, by his various measures to better the strain of horses in use at that time, and 

 especially by the introduction of the Flnndtrs Horse, to give more weight and sub- 

 stance to iht heavy cuach-finrse, needed for, and adapted to the unwieldy carriages and 

 bad roads then in use. ''To this monarch too," says an English writer, " we are 

 unquestionably indebted for tiie foundation of our unrivalled draught horses. Aware 

 of the superiority in bulk and strength of the Flemish breed, he imported, at one time, 

 an hundred of the finest stallions." Subsequently, Edward II. imported tiiirty war, 

 and twelve heavy draught liorses, from Lombardy ; and these again were well crossed 

 at a later period, when Edward III. of warlike temper, brought over Jif/y iipatiish 

 horses, at a cost of thirteen pounds six shillings, equivalent, in our day of luxury and 

 paper money, to $800 each. It is fairly to be presumed, that in his great passion for 

 the chase. His Royal Majesty perceived the necessity of giving more speed to the 

 hunter, by tiirowing off some of the sluggish blood and massiveness of the Flemish 

 stock, which is in general " large in the carcass, pretty clean in the leg, i'nd patient 

 and enduring, but slow. They are good at a dead pull, but very heavy in the fore- 

 hand ; inclined to get fat, but wanting in activity. They fall oft' in the rump, and the 

 hips stand out too much from the ribs. The most unsightly part is the setting-on of 

 the tail, which comes out low and points downwards." Such are the general charnc- 

 teristics of the Flemish horse. "Flanders Mare," as every one knows, is a common 

 term to express the opposite of grace and delicacy. They were imported into Eng- 

 land, as above stated, to give size to coach-horses, when roads were bad and coaches 

 of enormous weight ; but, as cause and effect are connected, and the one infallibly fol- 

 lows and is controlled by the other, coaches have become lighter, and coach-horses 

 quicker and more airy, as roads have been improved. The policy of this change from 

 heavy to lighter horses, however, was again necessarily restrained and limited by the 

 then still existing necessity for having chargers of great stamina to carry, beside* 

 their rider, tlie heavy armour weighing over three hundred pounds, as did that in com 

 mon use before the invention of gunpiavder ! 



How often public policy, the exterior relations of a country, and various accident? 

 and events ap})arent]y altogether extrinsic, serve to establisii historical facts, and t6 

 influence the courses of national industry, literature, and arts ! Thus, the representa- 

 tion of a man driving a horse attached to a harrow, woven in a piece of tapestry, is 

 the evidence relied upon to prove that about contemporaneously with the Norman con- 

 quest, horses had got to be employed in that sort of labour; and here again we see, at 

 a subspcpient |)eriod, a revolution in the whole system of breeding iirrses in 15ritain, 

 brought about by the invention of gunpoivder ! While in our own day, we have beheld 

 Steam so applied as to drive horse-power from all her great thoroughfares, and to do 

 in her factories the labour of some millions of men ! Truly, these are the days of 

 progress .' 



We como now to the period when horses Mere first distinctly classified and disci 

 plined expressly for ivar, and the /ur/", tlie chase, the road, and the mnch ; and here we 

 may safely leave the subject as far as relates to the introduction of foreign horses into 

 Eno-land, for the most jiart judicious, and well calctil ;t(Hl, as the e'der must have per- 

 ceived, to pave the way for what has since been accom]ilisbed in the melioration of 

 this favourite animal, and in adapting his structure and properties, from time to time, 

 to his new and more various empbn'ments. Some particular rnnctirents. however, 

 designed to accomplish the same objects, are well worthy of being mentioned ; and, it 

 might be added, of being imitated — in our own country and time. In the reign of 

 Henry VIII., even the size and form of Stallions were prescribed by Statute; and 



