42 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



accuracy that has been so often proved of all that he wrote down from obser- 

 vation : 



" Round-hoofed, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, 

 Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide, 



High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong, 

 Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide ; 



Look what a horse should have he did not lack 



Save a proud rider on so proud a back." 



I believe that from this quotation a very just estimate of the progress of breeding at 

 the time it was written may be obtained. The best horse Shakespeare saw at the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century had many good points which might be 

 attributed to Arab ancestry, but there was still far too much left in him of the old 

 heavy domestic stock for which Henry VIII. had largely been responsible. Indeed 

 I cannot believe that the poet was describing any animal from " the Barbary Horse 

 Stables " which the Queen carefully kept up at Greenwich. Some of these she gave 

 away, as Grey Binhain to Sir Philip Sidney, Pide Mark/tarn to the French 

 Ambassador, Gray Dosby to Archibald Douglas, Bay Harrington to Doctor Baylie, 

 Grey Stanhope to Sir Roger Williams, Bay Roscbcry to the son of the Prince of 

 Orange. She had others, to the number of forty " coursers " in all, with two jockeys, 

 named respectively Andrew Alley and Romano Marchafdinge. One of the most 

 skilful riders in her employ was John Selvvyn, who had special charge of the 

 Oaklands stables. He lies buried under a monument which commemorates his 

 fine horsemanship in the church of Walton-on-Thames. Besides him there were 

 attached to the Royal stud a "surveyor of the races," at 22 a year, two " keepers 

 of the course," at sixpence a day, two "yeomen of the Races." at 22 35. 4d. a year, 

 by name Thomas Bascavild and Thomas Alsop. She had also regular stables at 

 Waltham, St. Albans, Katon, Hampton Court, Richmond, Windsor and Charing 

 Cross. 



But it is clear from many other things, besides a single quotation from Shake- 

 speare, that the real value of the Arab had not even yet been so recognised as to 

 produce a definite breed for a definite purpose. I have said that Arabs are known 

 in England from the days of the Roman occupation up to the Wars of the Roses, and 

 that when further importations were again made in the reign of Henry VI 1 1., the 

 horses he chiefly admired were evident descendants from those which the Court of 

 Ferrara had previously procured from England. The point I wish to make now is 

 that, as many contemporary drawings show, and as was obvious in the breed which 



