HORSES AND CATTLE 137 



such Vineyards and Wall-vines as produce great store of excellent 

 good wine." 



Increased attention was also being paid to live-stock, and the 

 values of distinctive breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs were 

 discussed. If Gervase Markham's Cheape and good Husbandry 

 (edition of 1631) is compared with Mortimer's Whole Art of 

 Husbandry (1707), some idea may be formed of the views of the 

 seventeenth century on stock-breeding. 



On horses, Markham, in spite of the criticism of Child already 

 quoted, was reputed an authority. " Now for the choyse of the 

 best Horse," he writes, " it is divers according to the use for which 

 you will imploy him." Of " Horses for the Warre," he says, " the 

 courser of Naples is accounted the best, the Almaine, the Sardinian, 

 or the French." " For a Prince's Seat, any supreame Magistrate, 

 or for any great Lady of state," he recommends a " milkewhite " or 

 " faire dapple gray " steed of English breed : failing that, a 

 " Hungarian, Swethland, Poland, or Irish " horse. The best hunter 

 he finds in " the English horse, bastardized with any of the former 

 Races first spoake of." The finest race-horses are " the Arabian, 

 Barbary, or his bastard- Jennets, but the Turkes are better." 

 " For travaile or burthen " the best is the English horse, and " the 

 best for ease is the Irish-hobby." " For portage, that is for the 

 Packe or Hampers," and " for the Cart or Plough," he makes no 

 selection. For coach horses, he chooses the large English gelding, 

 or the Flemish mare, or the Flemish or Frisian horse. There were 

 doubtless already distinctive breeds in England, such as the York- 

 shire saddle-horses of the Cleveland district, the heavy Black Horse 

 of the Midlands, the Suffolk Punch, or the West-country pack- 

 horse ; but they are not mentioned by Markham. Nor does Mor- 

 timer refer to any English breeds. He tells us, however, that 

 Leicestershire was in his day one of the great horse-breeding counties, 

 and that Hertfordshire farmers bought the colts as two-year-olds, 

 and sold them " at about six Years old to Gentlemen at London 

 for their Coaches." 



Among cattle, the best breeds " for meat " were the long-horned 

 cattle of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Staffordshire. The 

 tall long-legged Lincolns, generally " pide," with more white than 

 any other colour, were reckoned the best for " labour and draught." 

 " Those in Somersetshire and Gloucestershire are generally of a 

 blood-red colour, in all shapes like unto those in Lincolne-shire, 



