94 THE HORSE. 



From the reign of James I. 

 racing and of tlie English race-liorse may be held to commence, 

 althongh no existing pedigrees trace so far back. 



I ilnd a curious notice in Brandt's popular antiquities, which 

 appears to relate to this period, if one may judge by the con- 

 text ; the date of Misson's travels I have not yet been able to 

 ascertain, but the collocation of the sentences seems to indicate 

 that it was prior to 1641. 



" Misson, in his travels in England, translated by Ozell, 

 p. 231, says : ' The English nobility take great delight in horse- 

 races. The most famous are usually at J^ewmarket, and there 

 you are sure to see a great many persons of the first quality, 

 and almost all the gentlemen of the neighborhood. It is pretty 

 common for them to lay wagers of two thousand pounds sterling 

 upon one race. I have seen a horse after having run twenty 

 miles in fifty-five minutes, upon ground less even than that 

 where the races are run at Newmarket, and won the wager for 

 his master, would have been able to run anew without taking 

 breath, if he, that had lost, had ventured to run again. There 

 are also races run by men.' 



" In Ilinde's Life of Master John Bruen, a Puritan of great 

 celebrity, 1641, p. 104, the author recommends ' unto many of 

 our gentlemen, and to many of inferior rank, that they would 

 give over their foot-races, and horse-races, &c.' 



"A proclamation was issued by the Protector Cromwell, 8tli 

 April, 1658, 'prohibiting horse-races in England and Wales 

 for eight months.' " 



I have extracted the three quotations, though it is the first 

 only, which I especially regard in this place — supposing it to 

 have some relation to '"the absurdly long and cruel distances" 

 of Mr. Youatt — in order to show how their relative bearing 

 would aj^pear to countenance the idea of its date being that of 

 King James I. or early in the reign of Charles I. 



It is, and is acknowledged and admitted to be, a fact, that 

 Barbs and Turkish horses had, long before the period of the 

 commonwealth, been imported into England — although with 

 the exception of the horse, mentioned before as introduced by 

 Alexander I. of Scotland — the Markham Arabian is probably 

 the first of this strain ever brought into the British Isles ; yet 



