378 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK HI. 



in England the oldest surviving appellation for the active riding horse 

 is that of Nag, derived from the Anglo-Saxon Knegan, to neigh. 

 When the Normans became masters, they introduced their own more 

 familiar term HaquenJe, or Hacquenee, the French word derived from 

 the Latin equits. This name had been fully adopted into the English 

 tongue in the year 1303. Chaucer, who, it is believed, lived for a time 

 in Norfolk, spells the word in two forms as hakeney and hacknay. 

 The old writers used it in the sense of a riding horse for general 

 purposes, as distinct from the war horse. Both Nag and Hacknej^ 

 continue to be used as synonymous terms to this day. Possibly, the 

 name Trotter, 1 descriptive of the characteristic gait of such a horse, 

 had been used in the vulgar tongue long before we find record of it, 

 for the action is most accurately described by a writer on English 

 customs as early as the year 1170. 



The origin of the modern type of Hackney is, sa} r s Mr. Euren, 

 undoubtedly to be -sought in one horse, variously known, more than a 

 century ago, as the Schales Horse, Shields, or Shales (foaled about 

 1755), the sire of the better known Scot's or Schales Horse. The 

 former was the first noteworthy trotting Hackney stallion of the 

 modern type. 



Mr. Anthony Hamond observes (" Live Stock Journal Almanac ") 

 that the Hackney, an established English Breed of determined cha- 

 racter, is now coming to the front more than it has ever done before. 

 Under the term Hackney is now included the Yorkshire Roadster and 

 Norfolk Trotter, bred very much from the same stock, though the 

 Yorkshire breeders have crossed more with thoroughbred blood than 

 the other breeders in the eastern parts of England. Much care has 

 been taken to preserve the breed in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, 

 Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, especially the Isle of Ely, also in 

 Suffolk, whilst many parts of England, Scotland, and Wales have found 

 the horse with action, the Hackney, to cross well with their mares. 



The Welsh cross is especially good, as can be seen by the numbers 

 of Norfolk stallions with a dash of Welsh cob blood in the pedigrees. 



The inclusion of these breeds under one term, Hackneys, and 

 exhibition of them in the same classes, make judging at shows very 

 difficult ; some are riding horses, some driving horses. There are 



1 In Lawrence's " Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses," published in 1796, it 

 is stated : Horses, for the different purposes of the saddle, were in former days termed 

 Nags, Amblers, Pacers, Stirrers, Trotting-Horses, Hobbies, Great Horses or Horses for the 

 Buff-saddle (for war), Hunting-Horses, Coursers, Race-Horses. The appellatives, whether 

 synonymous or distinctive, in present equestrian use among us, are Road-Horses, Riding- 

 Horses, Saddle-Horses, Nags, Chapman's Horses, Hacks, Hackneys, Ladies' Horses or Pads, 

 Hunters, Running Horses, Racers, Race-Horses, Gallopers, Welter-Horses, Managed Horses, 

 Chargers, Troop-Horses, Post-Hacks or Post-Horses, Trotters, Cantering Hacks or Canterers, 

 horses which carry double, Cobs, Galloways, Ponies, and Mountain-Merlins. 



But the same writer states in his History that the (then) present varieties of the Horse, 

 and their denominations, were as follows : The Racer, Race-Horse, or Running-Horse ; the 

 Hunter ; the Charger ; the heavy and light Troop-Horse ; the Hack, Hackney, Roadster, 

 Road-Horse, or Chapman's Horse ; a cloddy, compact Horse or Gelding of this description 

 ; .s now and then styled a Coble (hence our word " Cob" is modern) ; the Lady's Horse, or 

 Pad ; the Coach-Horse, Chariot, and Curricle Horse ; Gig-Horse or Chaise-Horse ; the 

 Machiner and Post-Hack ; the Cart and Dray-Horse, Galloways, Ponies. 



