1C2G.] BELL-HORSES. 201 



tracted from it by a thousand follies of youth and 

 love," upwards of 500,000 llvres in one year. He 

 was confined in the Bastille for seven years, for having 

 refused to dine with Cardinal Richelieu, when he 

 beguiled the tediousness of his prison by writing his 

 Memoirs, 



Towards the conclusion of Charles 1,'s reien, it 

 appears that the English method of keeping and 

 managing their horses was thought so judicious, that 

 France, and other neighbouring countries, thought 

 proper to imitate or copy it. 



Bell Horses. — " The last set of Bell Horses either seen or 

 heard of in the N. of England, were kept by the late Charles 

 Michell, Esq. (of eccentric memory), of Forcett Hall, near 

 Richmond. Although it must be now more than xl. years 

 since I last saw those horses, in their handsome trappings, 

 pass through Piersebridge, I can nevertheless fancy that I 

 still hear the music of their bells tingling in my ears. These 

 bells were suspended on a wooden frame-work, which frame 

 was covered v/ith a parti-coloured worsted fringe. 



•' The Rev. Mr. Darnell, rector of Stanhope, had in his 

 \ possession a bell of this sort, which is considered a great 



curiosity. It used formerly to be suspended at the neck of 

 the leading horse (proverbially known as the Bell-horse), of 

 the trains by which they Salters, of olden time, conveyed 

 their merchandise over the moors of that district. It is very 

 massive, and has a fine harmonious tone." — " North of Eng- 

 land Folk-Lore," by M. A. Denham, Esq., of Piercebridge, 

 county Ebor, Richmon (privately printed), c. 1858, p. 27. 



The following rhyme used to be recited by the starter in 

 the North of England at foot and horse races : — 



" Bellasay, Bellasay, what time o' day, 

 One o'clock, two o'clock, three and away." 



Bellasay is apparently a corruption of Bell-horses. — Den- 

 ham's " Northern Folk-Lore." 



