78 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book II. 



apologizes for being unable to render him more as- 

 sistance in the selection, and would gladly have sent 

 him better animals, " but that the breed of horses in 

 his country is very much degenerated."* The follow- 

 ing year Sir Gregory obtained for the king another 

 horse " which had no fellow in Italy." f 



The king wrote from Greenwich on the 8th of 

 January, 1533, to Frederick, Duke of Mantua, thanking 

 him for a present of mares which he had just received 

 by Ippolito Pagano, "a gift most aggreeable, not 

 merely because he delights greatly in horses of that 

 breed {illo equorum gcnere), but also because " they 

 were sent by his Excellency." \ In reciprocation 

 Henry sent the duke two English horses § {gradmnos 

 equos), probably descendants of the celebrated barbs 

 imported in 1514. In 1537 the duke wrote to Mattheo 

 Deir Agnella, surnamed " El Barba," who was then 

 in London, requesting him to send him " an English- 

 bred hobby." II 



In June, 1530, 248 crowns = ^57 ijs. \d., was 

 charged to the Privy Purse for bringing three horses, 

 two men, and one boy from " Mantwaye." About this 

 time we read of drafts of this strain having been sent to 

 Spain, which proves the reputation of the Mantua stud.^ 



* Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., MSS., P.R.O. 



IMS. Vit. bk. iv. 37, B.M. Cf. Shakespeare's King Henry the Eighth 

 — " The league between his Highness and Ferrara . . . To Gregory de 

 Cassalis to conclude." 



X Ferdinand Charles, last Duke of Mantua, died in 1706, when the 

 Emperor of Austria took possession of his dominions. The duke's stud 

 was continued, and strains of the Anglo-Arabian breed are probably still 

 to be found at the now Imperial harras. 



§ S. P. Venetian, vol. iv., 840, p. 374. || Ibid., vol. v., 135, p. 54. 



IF S.P. England and Spain, vol. iii., p. 2, p. 609. 



