22 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book I. 



young- men were anxious to prove their horses in the 

 greater course, or, as the Saxon translator expresses it, 

 that " we might run and try which had the swiftest 

 horse. The individual spoken of at last joined them, 

 but his animated horse, attempting to clear a cavity in 

 the way, by a violent leap, the youth was thrown 

 senseless against a stone, and with difficulty brought 

 to life." This probably occurred at Newmarket, 

 within the dominion of East Anglia, in the reign of 

 Edmund King and Martyr ; but in those days New- 

 market Heath was unknown and unnamed, nor indeed 

 had Cambridgeshire any geographical identification. 



"If we appeal to the poets," says Strutt, "we shall find 

 that swift-running horses were greatly esteemed by the heroes 

 who figure in their romances, and rated at prodigious prices ; 

 for instance, in an ancient poem, which celebrates the warlike 

 actions of Richard the First, it is said, that in the camp of the 

 Emperor, as he is called, of Cyprus, 



Two stedes fownde kinge Richarde, 



Thatt von Favell, thatt other Lyard ; 



Yn this worlde, they hadde no pare [equal] ; 



Dromedary, neither destrere, 



Stede, rabyte, ne cammele, [steed, rabbit, or camel] 



Goeth none so swyfte withoute fayle ; 



For a thousand pownd of golde, 



Ne sholde the one be solde. 



And although the rhymist may be thought to have claimed 

 the poetical licence for exaggeration respecting the value of 

 these two famous steeds, the statement plainly indicates that 

 in his time there were horses very highly prized on account of 

 their swiftness. We do not find, indeed, that they were kept 

 for the purpose of racing only, as horses are in the present 

 day, but rather for hunting and other purposes of a similar 

 nature ; and also to be used by heralds and messengers in case 

 of urgency." * 



* " Rural Sports," book i., chap, iii., sect. 7. 



