38 



The Book of the Horse. 



in London. Every knight was bound to keep iiorses in proportion to the military service 

 due from liim — every landed squire and squire's lady, every yeoman, kept one or more active 

 riding-horses, and performed all journeys on horseback. There were no public conveyances. 

 Hunting the buck and the hare was much practised, as well as running-horse matches for 

 wagers and for bells of honour. 



The high-school or manege riding was an accomplishment confined to gentlemen of great 

 landed estates and of the knightly class. Manege horses in the time of James were just as much 

 an expensive luxury as a stud of thoroughbred Leicestershire hunters at the present day. There 

 existed then, as the next reign proved, a large class of gentry and yeomanry possessing plenty of 



4^} 



THE MARgUlS OK NtWCASTLE: MAN6GE SEAT. 



good horses, which they rode on the natural, as distinguished from the artificial scat of " the 

 school," in pursuit of their ordinary business as well as for their pleasure, hunting and 

 racing. Their horsemanship differed as much from manege riding as dancing differs from 

 running. 



In the following passages from Gervase Markham, we learn whence came those horses 

 on which Cromwell's Ironsides, a few years later, rode down the Cavaliers led by Prince 

 Rupert at Grantham, at Gainsborough, at Marston Moor, and at Naseby, all battles decided 

 by cavalry : — 



" I do daily findc," says Markham, " in mine experience, that the vertue, goodness, boldness, 

 swiftness, and endurance of our true-bred English horses is equal with any race of horses whatso- 

 ever. Some former writers, whether out of want of experience, or to flatter novelties, have con- 

 cluded that the luiglish horse is a great strong jade, deep-ribbed, sid-belled, with strong legges and 



