124 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



And now again we find allusion to the Turf. 

 Apparently Edward II. disliked horse racing 

 such horse-racing as there was in his reign and 

 all that appertained to it, for upon the feast of St 

 George in the year 1309 we find him interdicting 

 "a tournament which was to be held on New- 

 market Heath " ; an act that made him unpopular 

 for the moment, though when some years later he 

 deliberately put a stop to preparations in progress 

 in connection with a similar tournament nobody 

 seemed much to mind. 



That the people of England were none the less 

 interested in horses at about this time we may 

 infer from the knowledge we have that John 

 Gyfford and William Twety had already issued 

 their books upon horses and hunting, books to be 

 seen to this day among the manuscripts in the 

 Cottonian Collection, and that were, if one may 

 express it so, widely read when first written. 



Strictly dissimilar were the views of Edward 

 III. from those of his predecessors where the 

 subject of horses and the various forms of sport 

 in which the horse plays a prominent part were 

 concerned. The steps taken by Edward II. 

 deliberately to foster general dislike of certain 

 branches of sport had not achieved the desired 

 effect save amongst his small circle of sycophants, 

 and one of Edward III.'s first acts upon succeed- 

 ing him was to gather together a stud of the 

 swiftest running horses procurable. 



