HORSE. 685 



in Powisland, from which that part of Wales was for many ages cele- 

 brated for a swift and generous race of hordes. Giraldns Cam- 

 brensis, who lived in the reign of Henry II. takes notice of it ; and 

 Michael Drayton, contemporary with Shakespeare, sings their ex- 

 cellence in the sixth part of his Polyolbion. This kind was, proba- 

 bly, destined to mount our gallant nobility, or courteous knights for 

 feats of chivalry, in the generous contests of the tilt-yard, From 

 these sprung, to speak the language of the times, the flower of 

 coursers, whose elegant form added charms to the rider ; and whose 

 activity, and managed dexterity, gained him the palm in that field of 

 gallantry and romantic honour. 



Notwithstanding my former supposition, races were known in 

 England in very early times. Fitz-Stephen, who wrote in the days 

 of Henry II. mentions the great delight that the citizens of London 

 took in the diversion. But by his words, it appears not to have 

 been designed for the purposes of gaming, but merely to have 

 sprung from a generous emulation of shewing a superior skill in 

 horsemanship. 



Races appear to have been in vogue in the reign of queen Eliza- 

 beth, and to have been carried to such excess as to injure the for- 

 tunes of the nobility. The famous George, Earl of Cumberland, 

 is recorded ta have wasted more of his estate than any of his ances- 

 tors ; and chiefly by his extreme love to horse-races, tiltings, and 

 other expensive diversions. It is probable that the parsimonious 

 queen did not approve of it ; for races are not among the diver- 

 sions exhibited at Kennelworth, by her favourite Leicester. In the 

 following reign, were places allotted for the sport : Croydon, in the 

 south, and Garterly, in Yorkshire, were celebrated courses. Cam- 

 den also says, that, in 1607 there were races near York, and the 

 prize was a little golden bellv 



Not that we deny this diversion to be known in these kingdoms in- 

 earlier times ; we only assert a different mode of it, gentlemen being* 

 then their own jockies, and riding their own horses. Lord Herberts 

 of Cherbury, enumerates it among the sports that gallant philoso- 

 pher thought unworthy of a man of honour. " The exercise," says 

 he, " I do not approve of, is running of horses, there being much 

 cheating in that kind ; neither do I see why a brave man should de^ 

 light in a creature whose chief use is to help him to run away." 



The increase of our inhabitants, and the extent of our manufac* 

 tures, together with the former neglect of internal navigation ta 

 convey those manufactures, multiplied the number of our horses> 



