216 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



Also we read that about the year 1617 " half- 

 a-dozen Barbry horses" were brought to England 

 by Sir Thomas Edmonds and stabled at New- 

 market in the royal paddocks. 



A quaint description is to be found in the 

 works of several of the writers in James I.'s reign 

 of an accident that befell the king in December of 

 the year 1621 as he was riding after dinner, an 

 accident that in spite of its undeniable grotesque- 

 ness might well have proved disastrous. 



The king, it seems, had "gone abroad early 

 in the day, and to Theobald's to dinner." He 

 appears to have enjoyed his dinner at Theobald's 

 greatly, and to have decided quite suddenly, as 

 soon as the meal was over, that he would like 

 "to ride on horseback abroad." 



The accident that presently was to occur is 

 attributed by different writers to different causes, 

 the most charitable of the reports being to the 

 effect that the king's horse stumbled and threw 

 his royal master on to the frozen surface of the 

 New River "with so much violence that the ice 

 brake and he fell in so that nothing but his boots 

 were seen." 



Sir Richard Young, who chanced to be riding 

 just behind him, instantly sprang off his horse 

 and succeeded with the help of a friend, though 

 only with great difficulty, in dragging the dripping 

 monarch " out of the hole and his undignified 

 predicament." 



