ITISTOEY OF THE EXGLISII ITORSK. 61 



' Mieliaelmastide' the iieiglibouring magistrates were ordered to 'drive' 

 all forests and commons, and not only destroy sucli stallions, but all 

 ' unlikely tits,' wliether mares, or geldings, or foals, wliich tliey might 

 deem not calculated to produce a valuable breed. 



He next had recourse to a sumptuary law in order more fully to accom- 

 plish his object ; and, appealing to the pride of those who were concerned, 

 he had no difficulty in this matter. Every archbishop and duke was 

 compelled, under certain penalties, to keep seven trotting stallions for the 

 saddle, each of which was to be fourteen hands high at the age of three 

 years. 



There were very minute directions with regard to the number of the 

 same kind of horses to be kept by thtf other ranks of the clergy and nobi- 

 lity, and the statute concludes by enacting, that every person having 

 benefices to the amount of one hundred pounds yearly, and ' every layman, 

 whose wife shall wear any French hood or bonnet of velvet,' shall keep 

 one such trotting stallion for the saddle. 



These enactments, tjTannical as they appear to us, were quietly sub- 

 mitted to in those days, and produced the kind of horse which was then 

 alone comparatively useful, and whose strength and noble bearing and 

 good action were the foundation of something better in after days. 



The civil dissensions were at an eiid, there was no fear of foreign 

 invasions — no numerous cavalry were needed — the labours of agriculture 

 were performed chiefly by oxen, or by the smaller and inferior breeds of 

 horses — races were not established- — the chase had not begun to be 

 pursued with the ardour and speed of modern days — nothing, in fact, was 

 now Avanted or soiight for, but an animal more for occasional exhibition 

 than for sterling use, or if useful, principally or solely with reference to 

 the heavy carriages and bad roads and tedious travelling through the 

 country. If this is rightly considered, it will be acknowledged that, with 

 all his faults, and Avith the confession that he was ever more actuated by 

 the determinations of his own ungovernable passions than the advantage 

 of his people or of posterity, we still owe him thanks for the preservation 

 of that breed of horses from which in after times sprung those that were 

 the glory of our country and the envy of every other. 



The following extract from a manuscript dated 1512, in the third year 

 of the reign of Henry VIII., and entitled the Regulations and Establish- 

 ment of the Household of Algernon Percy, the fifth Earl of Northumber- 

 land, may give the reader a sufficient knowledge of the different kinds of 

 horses then in use. 



' This is the ordre of the chequir roul of the nombre of all the horsy s of 

 my lordis and my ladys that are apo^oitod to be in the charge of the hous 

 yerely, as to say, gentil hors [one of the superior breed, in distinction 

 from the ordinary race — the same term is at present applied to Italian 

 horses of the best breeds] ; palfreys [smaller horses of an inferior breed, 

 — the best of them, distinguished for their gentleness, and pleasant paces, 

 were set apart for the females of the family: — " The bard that tells of 

 palfried dames." Others of inferior value were ridden by the domestics 

 or servants of every kind. Thus Dryden says, 



The smiths and armoiu-ers on palfreys ride.] 



Hobys [strong and active horses of rather small size, and said to have 

 been originally of Irish extraction. Thus Davies, in liis account of Ireland, 

 says: — "For twenty hohhlers armed — Irish horse-soldiers — so called 

 because they served on hobbies ; they had 6d. per diem"] ; naggis, [or 

 nags, so called from their supposed propensity to neigh, knegya. They 



