32 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



could afford " French hoods or a bonnet of velvet " for their wives, were ordered to 

 keep a trotting stallion under a penalty of .20. 



It may be worth while to notice, as one result of all this law-making, that two 

 Friesland horses are known to have been sold in this reign for ,33 ; and that for 

 two "large horses" (apparently the King's favourite breed) sums of ,37 and ,53 

 respectively were paid, while two of the commoner sort were sold at Smithfield, in 

 1547, for \ 135. 6d. On the whole I fancy that the legislation of this reign was 

 too hasty to have much permanent effect. The improvement of thoroughbred stock 

 was a slow and costly business, which even bluff King Hal could not accelerate. 

 As far as mere quantity went, he can have been scarcely more successful ; for though 

 it is true that a few gentlemen like Sir Nicholas Arnold kept up a numerous stud, 

 and also that King Edward VI. writes to his friend Barnaby FitzPatrick (first Baron 

 of Upper Ossory) of the number and excellence of the horses he could levy ; yet if 

 the often-quoted figure of three thousand cavalry was all that Elizabeth could call 

 into the field when the fear of the Spaniard was on all the land in 1588, the progress 

 does not seem to have lasted, and even out of these small numbers the greater parl 

 are described by Blundeville as " very indifferent, strong, heavy, slow draughthorses." 



It is also germane to our subject to observe that severe gambling legislation has 

 invariably accompanied any particularly vigorous epoch in Turf history. It begins, 

 as far as I am aware, in 1389, when Richard II., as I have already quoted, forbade 

 stakes upon games of chance played by husbandmen or labourers. Twenty years 

 after the penalty was increased to six days' imprisonment. In the thirty-third year of. 

 his reign Henry VI II. visited all kinds of gambling with a fine of forty shillings, in 

 the most paternal manner ; but noblemen and the richer gentry were apparently 

 allowed a perfectly free license to do what they pleased in such matters. Thus did 

 the authorities in early days strive to limit losses on the Turf to those who could 

 afford it. How slow behind them limp the ponderous modern definitions of "a place 

 within the meaning of the Act." 



That the importations which Henry had so magnificently inaugurated were kept 

 up during the next reign is evident from the journal of King Edward VI., which 

 records, in January, 1551-2, that " the French King had sent me six cortalles, two 

 Turkes, a barbary, two genettes, a slurring horse (probably the same as ' a courser ') 

 and two little muyles." This was a graceful return for the " two most beautiful 

 Spanish horses, originally given to the King by Charles V., and sent on as a present 

 to the French King under the care of Sir Jacques de Granado the Royal equerry." 



