6 A MIRROR OF THE TURK 



bottles, pack, Berage Robe, and stalking horses." 

 In this list is comprised the elements of the 

 modern stud. 



During the reign of Henry VIII. various 

 enactments were made with a view to improving 

 the breed of horses. To make sure that the 

 country should possess horses of commanding 

 strength and size, the proportions of both sires 

 and dams were regulated by an Act, one of the 

 provisions of which was that no person should 

 put in on forest, chace, moor, or heath, any stoned 

 horse above the age of two years not being fifteen 

 hands high, nor under fourteen hands, on pain of 

 forfeiting the same. This Act, which discriminated 

 the sizes in different counties, was undoubtedly 

 judicious in its results, which ultimately proved 

 beneficial to the general breed of horses through- 

 out the kingdom. Some curious regulations 

 devised by the King were from time to time 

 made public. He obliged all men of a given 

 position, especially clergymen, to keep a certain^ 

 number of horses. Thus Archbishops and Dukes 

 were enjoined in this reign to keep sevea 

 trotting stone horses of fourteen hands in height 

 for the saddle. Clergymen also who possessed 

 a benefice of ;^6oo per annum, or laymen, whose: 

 wives wore French hoods, or velvet bonnets,, 

 were ordered to keep one trotting stone horse,, 

 under a penalty of twenty pounds. 



In the time of Queen Elizabeth, public racing 

 was not much in vogue ; still, in the days of 

 " good Queen Bess," the race-horse continued to 

 be prized. Her successor on the throne, James I.,, 

 was remarkable for his attention to horse-breed- 

 ing. He ordered ;^500 to be paid to Mr^ 



