CHARLES VIII.'S HORSE, SAVOY 139 



The king rode White Surrey frequently when 

 travelling in state. That he had many other 

 white steeds seems obvious, and evidently he 

 was extremely partial to horses of that colour, for 

 we find him telling his nobles to use their influ- 

 ence to induce the wealthier section of his subjects 

 to breed and rear horses " white and grey." 



Savoy, though what we should to-day term a 

 "good plucked" horse, is said to have been "of 

 mean stature," also it had a blind eye. Charles 

 VIII. nevertheless rode it in preference to any 

 other horse in his stud, and that his stud was 

 a very large one we are told by some of the 

 earlier historians. 



Not a graceful horseman, he nevertheless had 

 a firm seat, and it is interesting to read that 

 he was extremely sensitive upon the subject of 

 his horsemanship. So emphatically was this the 

 case that upon one occasion he severely rebuked 

 one of his courtiers who had remarked unwittingly 

 in his presence that men existed who were physic- 

 ally incapable of becoming good riders. Accord- 

 ing to this king, indeed, one of the duties of every 

 gentleman was to become proficient in the art of 

 horsemanship, 



At about this time — that is to say towards 

 the close of the fifteenth century — a book that has 

 since been rightly or wrongly described as " the 

 first work on sport ever issued in England " 

 was published. When first it appeared it 



