•i6 The Book of the Horse. 



A good notion of the stables of a great nobleman in 15 12 may be gathered from the 

 regulations and establishment of Algernon Percy, fifth Earl of Northumberland. 



"This is the ordre of the chequir roul of the nombre of all the horsys of my lorde's and 

 my lady's that are appointed to be in the charge of the hous yerely, as to say, gentell hors, 

 palfreys, hobys, naggis, clothsell hors, male hors. 



" First, gentell hors, to stand in my lorde's stable, six. 



" Item — Palfris for my ladis : to wit, oone for my lady, two for her gentlewomen, and 

 one for her chamberer. 



" Four hobys and nags for my lorde's oone saddell ; viz., one for my lorde to ride, one 

 led for my lorde, and one to stay at home for my lorde. 



" Item — Chariot hors to stand in my lorde's stable yearly ; seven great trottynge hors 

 to draw in the chariot, and a nag for the chariot-man to ride — eight. Again, hors for Lord 

 Percy, his lordship's son and heir ; a great double trotting-hors, called a curtal, for his lordship 

 to ride out of townes. Another trottynge gambaldyne hors for his lordship to ride when he 

 comes into townes ; a proper amblynge little nag, when he goeth hunting and hawking ; a 

 great amblynge gelding or trotting gelding, to carry his male." 



Hobys were little hacks, described by early writers as commonly bred in Ireland. 



The clothsell horse followed at the same rate as my lord ; and when he had reached a 

 town it was the custom for his lordship to change from his easy-trotting or ambling nag, 

 and mount a parade horse, in order to make his entry in the form and state expected of 

 great personages in those days. No doubt he put aside his rough travelling clothes, and 

 attired himself in one of those magnificent costumes which are so picturesque in the portraits 

 of the Tudor age, and must have been so impossible as a riding-dress on the roads of either 

 North or South. 



Writers on the history of the British horse have attributed a good deal of importance 

 to an Act of Parliament, 32 Henry VIII., cap. 13, under which it is enacted, "That no person 

 shall put in any forest, chase, moor, heath, common, or waste, any entire horse above the 

 age of two years, not being 15 hands high, within the shires of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, 

 Buckingham, Huntingdon, Essex, Kent, South Hants, Berks, North Wilts, Oxford, Worcester, 

 Gloucester, Somerset, Wales, Bedford, Warwick, Nottingham, Lancaster, Salop, Leicester, 

 Hereford, or Lincoln, nor under 14 hands in any other county." And it is enacted that 

 any person may seize any horse so under size, " and, after having him measured by the 

 keeper of the forest, or the constable of the next town, in the presence of three honest men, 

 if found contrary to what is above expressed, to be turned to his own use." By the same 

 statute, "all commons and other places shall, within fifteen days after Michaelmas, be driven 

 by the owners and keepers, and if there be found in any of the said drifts any mare not able 

 to bear foals of reasonable stature, or to do profitable labour, in the discretion of the majority 

 of the drivers, they may kill and bury them." It was also ordered that the archbishops 

 and all dukes should keep seven entire trotting-horses for the saddle, each of which was to 

 be at least 14 hands high. Every clergyman possessing a living of the amount of ;£'iOO per 

 annum, or any one whose wife should wear a bonnet of velvet, was to keep one trotting entire 

 horse, under penalty of .£20. 



But it seems to be forgotten that although the imperious Henry could make any laws 

 he chose to dictate to his Parliament, he had no such means of carrying out his decrees 

 as have since been invented in the centralised governments of France and Prussia. According 

 to historical evidence, the effect of these enactments was to diminish the number of luirses; 



