lo A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



nor will any person be ever able to say ; those 

 we read about in the early times referred to, 

 must have been very coarse and of small value 

 compared to the blood stock of the present day. 

 But even before there came an infusion of foreign 

 blood, much care was evidently being exercised 

 in mating the sexes, and in the modes of feed- 

 ing and treating various kinds of horses ; they 

 seem to have been classified at an early age 

 according to the uses for which they were 

 designed. In 1512, there were "gentill horsys," 

 superior cattle, a kind which made good chargers; 

 there were also "palfreys," or horses of an elegant 

 description, trained for the use of ladies and 

 invalids of rank ; " hobys " were horses of a 

 strong and active kind, held at one time in high 

 repute and useful for many purposes ; " every 

 man has his hoby," is a phrase that probably 

 originated from the commonness of these animals; 

 the other kind was deemed useful for the carrying 

 of burdens. There were also chariot or "charotte" 

 horses, curtals or horses with a short tail, parade 

 or show horses known as "gambaldynges," as 

 also the "amblynge" horse much used by ladies. 



A considerable impetus was given to horse- 

 breeding in England in 1588, in which year 

 several fine Spanish horses were washed ashore 

 from some of the wrecked vessels of the Armada. 

 These animals were reputed to have been taken 

 to Newmarket and other places with the view 

 of improving the native breed; but as regards this, 

 and indeed most of the so-called facts about the 

 horse-breeding of that period, no very reliable 

 evidence exists. 



It was, during the reign of James I., however, 



