28o HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



journeying from one abbey to another, and restricted 

 them to a train of forty or fifty horses !' 



But the Anglo-Saxons, even so early as the time of 

 Bede,^ in their youth or ' childhood,' appear to have ex- 

 celled in horse-racing. Hunting on horseback was a 

 favourite pastime, and we are told how long the chases 

 were, and how rugged the paths. ^ An ealdorman's'' heriot 

 or claim to that title was the fact of his possessing four 

 horses saddled and four not saddled, with arms and money ; 

 while the king's thegn or baron must own a moiety of 

 that number, and the middling thegn or knight, one- 

 fourth .^ 



Horses must have been numerous and looked upon 

 as an important acquisition, even by the Danish invaders ; 

 for in the reign of Ethelred (866) these people made one 

 of their incursions into England in numbers never before 

 equalled, and were allowed by that monarch to locate 

 themselves for the winter in East Anglia. So bold were 

 they in their strength, that they levied demands upon the 

 king ; and among the many items he was compelled to 

 furnish was a supply of horses, which mounted the great- 

 est part of their army.^ 



Horses also appear to have been very acceptable 

 gifts. For, 926, we read that Hugues, the son of King 



' Vell.y. Hist, de France, vol. iii. p. 236. 



^ Hist. Eccles., lib. v. cap. 6, 



3 Life of St Dunstan. Cotton MSS. Cleop. B. 13. 



'• The ' ealdorman,' or ' aldormanus,' was, among the Anglo-Saxons, 

 originally a dignitary of the highest rank, hereditarily and officially, and 

 nearly synonymous with that of King. 



5 Leges Anglo-Saxonicae. 



* Asser. De Rebus Gestis ^Ifredi, p. ij. Edit. Oxford, 1772. 



