LORD CHERBURY'S ANTAGONISM 179 



Reference to eggs and oysters in this con- 

 nection is made elsewhere, so we may conclude 

 that the custom of thus feeding stallions was 

 not an uncommon one, at any rate in the time 

 of Elizabeth. 



Horse bread has already been mentioned, but 

 I have not come upon any direct allusion to oats 

 being used to feed horses upon at this period. 



Several of the writers in Elizabeth's reign 

 openly bemoaned the development of horse 

 racing, urging that trouble and disaster followed 

 in its train, but their moans were for the most 

 part stifled in the clamour of general approbation. 



Among those who spoke strongly in condemna- 

 tion of horse racing was the rather eccentric 

 Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Late in life he 

 wrote — to the amusement of his friends and 

 relatives — a complete history of his own career, 

 in which volume he again reverts to his pet 

 aversion by declaring that among the exercises 

 of which he disapproved were "the riding of 

 running horses, there being much cheating in that 

 kind." 



Hunting also he clearly objected to, for he goes 

 on to tell his readers that he does not like hunt- 

 ing horses, "that exercise taking up more time 

 than can be spared for a man studious to get 

 knowledge." 



From other of his remarks it becomes obvious 

 that some three centuries ago the men who 



