260 



NEW ENGLAND FARMKll, 



Mar. 9, 1B30. 



I<.*' 



LIBRARV OF ISEFI I. K^O^V^EDC;E. 



[Cmtinued from |Nlf<.Si>.] 

 CHAPTER III. 



HISTORY OF TlIK ENGLISH HORSE. 



Henry VIH. a tyrannical and cruel prince, but 

 fond of shew ami 8|)lendor, was very anxiuus to 

 produce a vnluablo breed of jiort^es ; and the 

 means wliicli lie uilopied were bolli perfectly in 

 unison with liis arliitrary dispo^ili^lll, and very 

 little calculated to effect bis object. He afli.vcd u 

 certain stamlard, below wbicli no lioisc should be 

 kept. Tlie lowest height for the stallion was fif- 

 teen hands, and for the mare thirteen hands ; and 

 even before they bad arrived at thi.'ir full growth, 

 no stallion above two yynrs old, and under four- 

 teen hanils and a half, was ))erinittcd to run on 

 any forest, moor, or connnon, where there were 

 niEres. At " Micbaehnastide" tho neighboring 

 inagi.«trates were oiilercil to '■ drive" all forests 

 and commons, and not only destroy such stallions, 

 but all " unlikely tits," whether marcs or geldings, 

 or foals, which they might deem not calculated to 

 produce a valuable breed. He likewise ordained, 

 lliat in every deer park, a certain number of mares 

 in proportion to its size, and each at least thirteen 

 liands high, should bo kept ; and that all his pre- 

 lates and nobles, and " all those whose wives wore 

 velvet bonnets," shoidd keep stallions lor tho sad- 

 dle at least fifteen liands high. These ordinances 

 ]>erished with the tyrant by whom llicy were pro- 

 mulgated. 



The reign of Henry VUI. produced the earliest 

 English treatise on agriculture, and ilie manage- 

 ment of horses and cattle. It was written by Sir 

 A. Fitzhcrbert, Judge of Common Pleas, and con- 

 tains much useful information. It is entitled, 

 " Boke of Husbandry ;" and, being now exceed- 

 ingly rare, an extract from it may not be unaccept- 

 able. It would seem that tho mare had been but 

 lately employed in husbandry, for he says, " A hiis- 

 bande may not be without horses and mares, and 

 sp^ially if he goo with a borse-plougbc he must 

 have both, his hor.ses to draive ; his mares to 

 brynge colts to uplioldc his slocke, and yet at ma- 

 ny limes they may draive well if they be well 

 handled." The leartn"d judge shared the eoininoii 

 fate of those who have to do with the horse. — 

 "Thou grasycr, that may.-l fortune to be of myne 

 opinion or condylion to love horses, and young 

 coltcs and folcs to go among thy cattle, take hede 

 that thou be not beguiled us I have been a hun- 

 dred tymes and more. Aiul first thou slialt knowe 

 that a good horse has 54 iiroperlies, that is to say, 

 2 of u Mian, 2 of a badger, 4 of a lion, 9 of an 

 oxc, 9 of a bare, 9 of a foxc, 9 of an nsse, and 

 10 of a woman."*'^ 



The tyrannical edicts of Henry VIH. had the 

 effect which common sense woulil have anticipa- 

 ted, — the breed of bcjrsi's was not materially im- 

 proved, and their mmd)ers were sadly diminished. 



* Later writcrn have pirated ftom Sir A., but have not 

 improved upon him. Tho fnlluwiag dcsciiplioD ol' the 

 horxc is well known. *' A good lioi'^c >tiotdd have three 

 i|iiiililief4or anoniaii, — a broad lirca<>l, round hips, nnil n 

 liiiiK mane; — tiirco of .1 liun, — countrnanrc, courage, and 

 lire ; — thrcii of a bullock, — tlio eye, the nostril, and joynli, 

 — three ofaihecp, — the mm:, gl■nll('ne«^<, and patience; 

 — three of a mule, — tlrcnutli.cnu^innry, anil foot; — lluec 

 of a deer, — head, leg*, and kliort hair ; — llircc of a wolf, — 

 throat, neck, ami hearing; — three of fi>x, — ear, tail, and 

 trot; — thiee of serpent, — memory, hiulil, an I turning; — 

 and three of a hare or cat, — running, w.dkiiii;, and .supple- 

 ncHs." 



\\hen the bigot, Philip of Spain, thrcatencil Eng- 

 land, in the reign of Elirabctli, with his Invincible 

 Armada, that princess could muster, in her whole I 

 kingdom, only three thousand cavalry to opjjose 

 him ; aiid Ulundeville, who wrote at this time a 

 very pleasant and excellent book on the art of ri- 

 ding, speaks contcmjituously of the <|ualities of 

 these horses. The secret of improving the breed had 

 not then liecn discovered ; it had been attempted 

 by arbitrary power ; and it had extemled oidy to 

 those crosses from which little good coidd have 

 been expected : or, rather, it had more reference 

 to the actual situation of the country, and the hea- 

 vy carriages, and the bad roads, and the tedious 

 travelling which then prevailed, than to the won- 

 derful change in these which a few centuries were 

 destined to effect. 



Blundcvillc describes the majority of our hor- 

 ses as consisting of strong, sturdy beasts, fit only 

 for slow draught, and the few of a lighter struc- 

 ture being weak and without bottom. There were 

 however, some cxcc[)tions ; for he relates a case 

 of one of these lighter horses travulling eighty 

 miles in a day — a task which in later times has 

 been too often and cruelly exacted from our half- 

 bred nags. 



An accoimt has been given of the racing trial 

 of the horses in Smithfield market. Regular races 

 were now established in various ])arts of Englanil. 

 Meetings of this kind were first held at Chester, 

 an<l Stamford ; but there was no ackiviwledged .sys- 

 tem lis now ; and no breed of racing horses. Hun- 

 ters and hackneys mingled together, and no de- 

 scription of horse was excluded. 



There was at first no course marked out for the 

 race, but the contest generally consisted in the run- 

 ning of <ratJi-.5C£n< across the country, and some- 

 times the most diflicult and dangerous part of the 

 country was selected for the exhibition. Occa- 

 sionally our ))resent steeple chase was adopted 

 with all its dangers, and more than its jircsent 

 barbarity ; for persons were appointed cruelly to 

 flog along the jaded and exhausted horses. 



It should, however, be acknowledged that the 

 races of that jjeriod were not disgraced by the 

 svslcni of gambling anil fraud which seems to 

 have become almost inseparable from the amuse- 

 ments of the turf. The prize was usually a wood- 

 en bell adorned with flowers. This was after- 

 wards exchanged for a silver bell, and "given to 

 him who should run the best and farthest on 

 horseback on Shrove Tuesday." Hence the com- 

 mon phrase of " bearing away the bell." 



Horse racing became gradually more cultivated : 

 but it was not until the last year of the reign of 

 •lames I. that rules were pronuilgafd and gone- 

 rally subscribed to for llieir regulation. That 

 prince was fond of fielil sports. Ho had encou- 

 raged, if ho ilid not establish, horse-racing in 

 Scotland, ond he bi-onght with him to England 

 lii.<; predilection for it ; but his races were iikuc 

 often matches against time, or trials of speed and 

 bottom, for absurdly and cruelly long distances. 

 His favorite courses were at Croyden and on En- 

 field Chase. • 



Although tho Turkish and Rarhary horses bad 

 been freely used to ]irodiice with the English 

 mare, the breed which was best suited to this ex- 

 ercise, little iiiiiirovcment had been elTectcd. James, 

 w4th great jiidgnn-nl, delcrmincd In try the .\rnb 

 bri-ed. Prnbably, he liiid not forgotten the story 

 of the Arnliiaii, which had been presented to one 

 of his Scottish churchci), five centuries before. 



liJ 



!•: 





\lv piirchnscd from a merchant named Markham ' 

 a celebrated .Arabian horse, for which he gave th« 

 extravagant sum of five hundred pounds. Kingi ?' 

 however, like their Piibjccts, are often thwnrtei 

 and governcil by their servants, and the Duke o 

 Newcastle took a dislike to this foreign animal " 

 He wrote a book, and a very good one, on horse " 

 niunship, and described this Arabian as a little bo 

 ny horse, of onlinary slia|ie, setting him down a 

 good for nothing, because, after being regularl 

 trained, he could not race. The opinion of th 

 Duke, probably altogether erroneous, had, fb 

 nearly a century, great weight ; and the Arabia 

 horse lost its reputation among the English turl 

 breeders. 



A South-Eastem horse was afierwards brough '-, 

 into England, and purchased by James, of M 

 Place, who was afterwards stud-master, or groor |j,.j 

 to Oliver Crotnwcll. This beautiful animal wa 

 called the White Turk, and his name, and that i 

 his keeper will long be remembered. SliortI 

 afterwardi appeared the Hclmsley Turk, intrt 

 iluced by Villiers, the first duke of Buckinghan 

 He was followed by F^airfax's Morocco Bar! 

 These horses speedily effected a considenibl 

 change in the character of our breed, so that Lor 

 Hurleigh, one of the old school, complained tin 

 the great horse was fast disappearing, and tbt 

 horses were now bred light and fine for the sak 

 tf speed only. 



Charles I. ardently pursaed this favorite objei 

 of Eiiglish gentlemen, and, a little before his ruf 

 tore with the parliament, established races 

 Hyde Park, and at Newmarket. The civil wai 

 somewhat siispenderl the improvem"nt of th 

 breed ; yet the advantage which was derived t 

 both parties from a light and active cavalry, siifl 

 cicntly proved the importance of the change win. 

 had been tfTccted ; and Cromwell perceiving, wi; 

 his wonted sagacity, how much these pnrsui 

 were connected with the (irosperity of the coiintr 

 had Ilia stud of race-horses. 



At the Restoration, a new impulse was given 

 the cultivation of the horse by the inclination 

 the court to patronize gaiety and dissipation. Tl 

 races at Newmarket were restored, and as an a 

 ditional spur to emulation, royal plates were no 

 giveft at each of the principal courses. Charh 

 II. sent his master of the horse to the Levant, 

 purchase brood mares and stallions. These we 

 principally Barbs and Turks. 



From that period to the middle of the last cei 

 tury, the system of improvement was zealcu.- 

 pursued ; every variety of Eastern blood was n 

 casionally cngriiftcd on ours, ond the superiorii 

 of the engrafted, above the very best of the or 

 ginul stock, began to be evident. 



Man is rarely satisfied wirh any degree of pe 

 fection in the object on which he has set his lieni 

 The sportsman had now beauty of form, and spec 

 and stoutness, scarcely an approach to which hn 

 been observed in tho original breed. Still .'on 

 iningined that this speed and stoutness might po 

 sihiy be increased ; and Mr Darlcy, in the hiiti 

 part of the reign of iiuecn Anne, had rccour 

 to the discarded and despised .Arabian, lie he 

 much prejuilico to contend with, and it was s<'ii 

 time before ihe Darlcy Arabian altrncted none 

 .\t length the value of his produce began to be n 

 cognised, and to hini wo are greatly indebted li 

 n bree<l of horses of iiiicquulled beauty, spec 

 and slrenglli. 



This hist improvement now furnishes all th 



lli 



