66 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HORSE. 



three nights to prove him for the staggers ; three months to prove tlie 

 soundness of his lungs ; and one year to ascertain whether he was infected 

 with glanders. For every blemish discovered after the jDurchase, one-third 

 of the money was to be returned, except it should be a blemish of the ears 

 or tail, which it was supposed to be his own fault if the purchaser did not 

 discover. The seller also warranted that the horse would not tire when 

 on a journey with others, or refuse his food from hard work, and that he 

 would carry a load or draw a carriage up or down hill, and not be restij. 



The practice of letting horses for hu'e then existed ; and then, as now, 

 the services of the poor hack were too brutally exacted. The benevolent 

 Howell disdains not to legislate for the protection of this abused and valuable 

 servant. ' Whoever shall borrow a horse, and rub the hair so as to gall 

 the back, shall pay four pence ; if the skin is forced into the flesh, eight 

 pence ; if the flesh be forced to the bone, sixteen pence.' If a person lamed 

 a horse, he was to forfeit the value of the animal ; and if he was supposed 

 to have killed a horse, lie was to purge himself by the oaths of twenty- 

 four compurgators. 



Then, as now, it would appear that some young men were a little too 

 fond of unwarrantable mischief, or perhaps there were thieves in the 

 country, even so soon after Alfred's days, showing also the estimation in 

 which this portion of the animal was held, and the manner in which the 

 hair was suffered to grow, for it was decreed that he who cut off the hair 

 from a horse's tail was to maintain him until it was gro"sva again, and in 

 the mean time to furnish tlie owner with another horse. If the tail was 

 cut off with the hair, the miscreant who inflicted the outrage was mulcted 

 in the value of the animal, and the horse was deemed unfit for future service. 



Athelstan seems to have placed considerable value on some of his horses ; 

 for he bequeaths, in his will, the horses given him by Thui'brand, and the 

 white horses pi-esented to him by Lisbrand. These are apparently Saxon 

 names, but the memory of them is now lost. 



With William the Conqueror came a marked improvement in the Biitish 

 horse. To his superiority in cavalry this prince was chiefly indebted for 

 the victory of Hastings. The favourite charger of William was a Spaniard. 

 His followers, both the barons and the common soldiers, principally came 

 from a country in which agriculture had made more rapid progress than 

 in England. A very considerable portion of the kingdom was divided 

 among these men ; and it cannot be doubted that, however unjust was the 

 usurpation of the Norman, England benefited in its husbandry, and par- 

 ticularly in its horses, by the change of masters. Some of the barons, and 

 particulai'ly Roger de Boulogne, earl of Slirewsbury, introduced tho 

 Spanish horse on their newly- acquired estates. The historians of these 

 times, however — principally monks, and knowing nothing about horses — 

 give us very little information on the subject. 



The Spanish horse was then highly and deservedly valued for his stately 

 figure and noble action, and was in much request in the tilts and tourna- 

 ments that were then in fashion. The Spanish horse wa§ the war-horse 

 of every one who could afford to purchase and properly accoutre so noble 

 an animal. The courage and the skill of the rider were most perfectly 

 displayed when united with the strength and activity, and spiiit and 

 beauty, of the steed. 



One circumstance deserves to be remarked, namely, that in none of the 

 earliest historical records of the Anglo-Saxons or the Welsh is there any 

 allusion to the use of the horse for the plough. Until a comparatively 

 recent period, oxen alone were employed in England, as in other countries, 

 for this purpose ; bu.t about this period — tbe latter part of the tenth 

 century — some iiniovatiun on this point was commencing, and a Welsh 



