HENRY NOT A FIRST-RATE JUDGE 165 



With the close of Henry VIII.'s reign — that 

 is, in 1547 — we come to an end of what was 

 without doubt a period in which the horse played a 

 more conspicuous part than it had done since the 

 Norman Conquest. Upon ascending the throne 

 Henry had found the condition of horse breeding 

 in this country in rather a bad way. With others, 

 as we have seen, he had set to work in earnest to 

 improve, to the best of his ability, the breed of 

 English horses, and though some of the statutes 

 that he enacted — also some of the methods to 

 which he had recourse in order to accomplish his 

 object — undoubtedly were drastic, directly and 

 indirectly they helped to bring about the improve- 

 ment he desired, and for this the nation still owes 

 him a debt of gratitude. 



Henry's fondness for the chase was equalled 

 only by the keen interest he took in the rather 

 primitive horse racing of his period, and trust- 

 worthy choniclers tell us that one of his most 

 cherished ambitions was to see established in 

 England a stud of the fastest horses the world 

 had ever known. 



When we bear in mind his fondness for horses 

 of all kinds it seems strange that he should not 

 have been a first-rate judge of a horse. Of know- 

 ledge of a horse's anatomy he had practically none, 

 for which reason his ignorance in this respect has 

 been contrasted with the knowledge that Wolsey 

 possessed. Once, indeed, when taxed with ignor- 



