G2 HISTORY OF THE EXGLISIl HORSE. 



were small, and not much valued, but active horses : — " Thy nags," says 

 Prior, 



The leanest things alive, 

 So very hard thou lov'st to drive.] 



Cloth-sek hors, [that carried the cloak-bag.] ; male-hors, [or mail, Avas 

 equivalent to portmanteau. Thus, in Chaucer, " I have rehcs and pardons 

 in my 7?2aZe."] First, gentil-hors, to stand in my lordis stable, six. Item. 

 Palfreys of my lady's, to vnt, one for my lady, and two for her gentil- 

 women, and oone for her chamberer. Four hobys and naggis for my 

 lordis oone saddill, viz. oone for my lorde to ride, oone to lede for my 

 lorde, and oone to stay at home for my lorde. Item. Chariot hors to stond 

 in my lorde's stable yerely. Seven great trottynge hors to draw in the 

 chariott [or car ; was the vehicle in various forms, but far inferior to the 

 chariot or coach in common use, in which the furniture or moveables were 

 conveyed, or, perchance, the inferior females of the family. The lord and 

 the lady usually rode on horseback. They were slow-paced, heavy 

 horses, perhaps not much unlike the carriage-horses a century ago, which 

 ploughed all the week, and took the family to cliui-ch on Sunday. It 

 must not be forgotten, as marking the character of the vehicle and its 

 contents, that the chariot-man, or coachman, rode by the side of the 

 horses, and so conducted them and the carriage], and a nagg for the 

 chariott-man to ride ; eight. Again, hors for lorde Percy, his lordship's 

 son and heir. A grete doble trottynge horse [a large and broad-backed 

 horse, the depression along whose back gives almost the appearance of two 

 horses joined together. Thus the French speak of le double bidet ; and 

 Virgil, referring to the horse, says, "At duplex agiturper lumbos spina"] 

 for my lorde Percy to travel on in winter. Item. A grete doble trottynge 

 hors, called a curtal, [one with a docked tail. Thus, Ben Jonson : — " Hold 

 my stirrup, my one lacquey, and look to my curtal the other,"] for his 

 lordship to ride on out of townes. Another trottynge gambaldpige 

 [gambald was the old word for gambol, and it means a horse that was 

 fond of playing and prancing about] hors, for liis lordship to ride upon 

 when he comes into townes. An ambhng hors for his lordship to journey 

 on dayly. A proper amblpig little nagg for his lordship Avhen he goeth 

 on hunting or hawking. A gret amblynge gelding or trottjmge gelding to 

 carry his male.' — Berenger on Horsemanshij). 



Sir Thomas Chaloner, who wrote in the early part of the reign of 

 Elizabeth, and whose praise of the departed monarch may be supposed to 

 be sincere, speaks in the highest terms of his labour to introduce into his 

 kingdom every variety of breed, and his selection of the finest animals 

 which Turkey, or Naples, or Spain, or Flanders could produce. Sir 

 Thomas was now ambassador at the court of Spain, and had an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing the valuable horses which that country could produce ; and 

 he says that ' England could furnish more beautiful and useful breeds than 

 any which foreign kingdoms could supply.' The fact was, that except for 

 pageantry or war, and the slow travelling of those times, there was no 

 motive to cultivate any new or valuable breed. The most powerful stimu- 

 lus had not yet been applied. 



Berenger, who would be good authority in such a case, provided expe- 

 rienced and skilful persons to preside in his stables, and to spread by these 

 means the rules and elements of horsemanship through the nation. He 

 invited two Italians, pupils of Pignatelli the riding master of JSTaples, and 

 placed them in his serAace ; and he likewise had an ItaHan fariier named 

 Hannibale, who, Berenger quaintly remarks, ' did not discover any great 

 mysteries to his English brethren, but yet taught them more than they 

 knew before.' 



