186 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



and Italy, but there is no reason for believing that 

 the agitators achieved their purpose. 



Nor, indeed, is it certain that Banks' death 

 sentence was pronounced by the Pope, or by his 

 order. That the man had come to be looked 

 upon as a magician, however, in every part of 

 Italy where his horse had been exhibited, ap- 

 parently is beyond dispute. 



Though strolling players of many sorts were, 

 as we know, plentiful in Elizabeth's reign, it 

 seems more than likely that the exhibition given 

 by Marocco may directly have inaugurated in 

 England the practice of training animals to per- 

 form tricks of the same sort for public shows. 



Certainly we hear soon after Marocco's tragic 

 end that exhibitions of performing animals were 

 advertised to take place in different parts of the 

 country, and from that time onward incidental 

 allusions to entertainments of the kind that we 

 to-day call circuses are to be found in some of the 

 old books. 



There mention is made of the methods em- 

 ployed in order to train the animals to their 

 owners' satisfaction, methods barbarous enough, 

 in all conscience. Yet none took exception to 

 them. For the tendency of the age, three 

 centuries ago, and down probably to a much later 

 period, was one of cruelty. The literature of 

 the last three hundred years makes that but too 

 apparent. 



