206 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



the Turf, and to the breeding of race horses, we 

 can hardly be surprised to hear that during his 

 reign the general interest in the breeding of 

 "great horses," which had been so marked a 

 feature of Henry VIII. 's reign, also of Elizabeth's 

 reign, at one time threatened to die out. 



Robert Reyce speaks of this in his " Breviary 

 of Suffolk," a book which he dedicated to Sir 

 Robert Crane, of Chiltern, and elsewhere allu- 

 sions are to be found to the decay of interest in 

 the breeding of "great horses." 



Indeed James appears to have admitted quite 

 openly that the bare sight of the animals bored 

 him " owing to the clumsy appearance they pre- 

 sented," a view that is shared to-day by several 

 of the more prominent of our owners of race 

 horses. 



Under the circumstances it is amusing to find 

 the king himself inditing a ponderous treatise 

 "for the instruction and edification of his son," 

 Henry, Prince of Wales, a treatise suitably 

 enough entitled " Religio Regis : or the Faith 

 and Duty of a Prince." 



Apparently he wrote the greater part of this 

 work at Newmarket, for in it he alludes more 

 than once to the races which were being held 

 there at the time, races at which he had been 

 present on the day he wrote. 



That he deemed horsemanship to be a form of 

 exercise of inestimable value becomes obvious as 



