THE ICENI ON NEWMARKET HEATH 75 



We are further told " that was the one chariot 

 which the host of the horses of the chariots of 

 Ulster could not follow on account of the swift- 

 ness and speed of the chariot and of the chariot 

 chief who sat in it." 



These peerless animals were guided by "two 

 firm-plaited yellow reins," and presumably the 

 black with "long and curly mane and tail " was 

 of Spanish or Gaulish blood. 



Soon after the coming of Christ, or probably 

 about the year 60 a.d., a tribe referred to as the 

 Iceni is known to have lived on what is now 

 called Newmarket Heath, and to have owned 

 horses, apparently in great numbers. 



Tacitus speaks of the Iceni, who must have 

 been a greater and more powerful people than 

 the majority of modern historians lead us to infer. 

 Again, it is interesting to note that nearly all the 

 gold and silver coins of the Iceni bear upon one 

 side the impression of a horse. Caesar refers 

 to the Iceni as a race that dwelt in Cambridge- 

 shire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and 

 Tacitus wrote practically to the same effect. 



Though horse racing is spoken of incidentally 

 as having been indulged in early in the Anglo- 

 Saxon era, quite the earliest bond-fide horse 

 races that took place in England, of which we 

 have authentic record, were those organised about 

 the time of the Emperor Severus Alexander, 

 or towards the beginning of the third century a.d. 



