The Marquis of Newcastle s Book. 43 



called Galway* nags, which he had seen hunt the buck exceedingly well, endured the chase 

 with great courage, and the hard earth without lameness better than horses of greater puissance 

 and strength." But the chase which he most recommends for training young horses was that 

 of the hare, " not a privilege confined, like that of the buck, to great noblemen, but a sport 

 easilie and equallie distributed, as well to the wealthie farmer as to the great gentleman." He 

 also recommends "the chace of a traine scent," which was nothing else than the modern "drag"' 

 hunt of Oxford, Windsor, and garrison towns — " a scent drawn either across ploughed lands, 

 or athwart green fields, leaping ditches, hedges, payles, rails, or fences, or running through a 

 warren." 



There was also "the wild-goose chase," the forerunner of the steeplechase (which within 

 this century has been played at Irish horse fairs), where half a dozen mad riders tried which 

 could set the others the most desperate or cramped and difficult leaps, and the rider who could 

 within a certain time keep forty yards ahead won the wager. 



In like manner, although racing had not assumed the importance of an art, as it did in the 

 reign of King James's son, Charles II., yet matches were constantly made, and horses were 

 trained to win private wagers all over the kingdom ; the prize of the public racecourse was 

 only a bell, but the wagering was heavy. The principles of training were the same as now, 

 although less •intelligently applied. The " runners," as they were called, were physicked 

 (sometimes with very ridiculous drugs), exercised, clothed, and groomed with very great pains. 



Cavendish, Marquis of Newcastle, published an edition of his celebrated work on " Horse- 

 manship " in French, in 1658, at Antwerp, during the time that he was an exile and Cromwell 

 was Protector ; an English edition with the original copper-plate illustrations appeared in 1667, 

 after the Restoration, dedicated to the king, who had created him Duke of Newcastle. 



The few pages which he devotes to the general subject of the horse are most interesting, 

 because they show that fifty years after Markham, although at least one Oriental sire destined 

 to be famous in the records of the stud-book had been introduuced, the Engli.sh blood-horse 

 had not been manufactured. 



His master, Charles, had obtained a footing in Africa, Tangiers being part of the dowry 

 of his Portuguese wife, and he had imported the celebrated " royal mares " of Barb, Arab, 

 Persian, or Turkish blood, no one can positively say which. The duke, whose whole heart and 

 soul was in the tricks of the manege, expresses himself very cautiously as to the value of the 

 English breed. In the following passage he speaks as if the horses of the time were presented 

 to him in mi.xed lots, like the droves that used to be seen at fairs, when fairs were a much 

 more important institution than they are at present. " If," he says, " a horse is fit to go a 

 travelling pace, let him do it ; if he is naturally inclined to make curvets, he must be put to it ; 

 and so of the dciiii-airs, passadoes, terrc-d-terre, croupadcs, balotadcs, and caprioles. If he be not 

 fit for any of these, put him to run the ring ; if he be not cut out for that, use him as a 

 drudge, or to go of errands. If none of these suit him" (and here mark his contempt) "he 

 will perhaps be good for running, hunting, or travelling, or for the portmanteau, or for the 

 burdens, or for coach or cart ; for really there is no horse but what is fit for some use or other." 

 And he goes on to observe, with trenchant irony, considering the character of his king : — 



" If princes were as industrious to know the capacities of men for different trusts they put 



* In 1715 the Earl of Stair, ambassador at the Court of Louis XIV., "sometimes presented to persons of distinction a 

 pair of Galloways ; the pure breed of small Galloway horses being then nearly e.\tinct, and highly valued." — Memoirs of Earls 

 oj S:.dr. 



