?6 



take many of them to Rome, and the British horses were in demand 

 for sometime after that in many parts of the Roman Empire. 



At that time the horses must have been exceedingly numerous in 

 Great Britain, as it is said, that King- Casibelaun, when he dismissed 

 the greater part of his army, retained fotir thousand chariots with the 

 intention to disturb the Romans while foraging. 



British horses were first crossed at that period, but it cannot be as- 

 certained, whether or no this had improved their breed. The Romans 

 who had settled in Britain, imported numerous cavalry in order to 

 quell the frequent insurrections of the natives. No doubt the Roman 

 horses became amalgamated with the English, and so the latter became 

 a mixture of the native, with the Gallic, Italian, Spanish cavalry. Sev- 

 eral centuries elapsed, during which no account is given of the En- 

 glish horse, as to w hether its breed was improved or neglected. 



About nine hundred and twenty years after the landing- of Caesar, 

 we find the British territories united xmder Alfred. This monarch 

 gave great attention to horse breeding and created the office of horse 

 thane, a dignitary attached to the court of the King. 



Athelstan, the natural son of Alfred the great and the second in 

 reign after him, laid great stress on matters of horse breeding and in 

 the year 930 issued a decree, that no horse should be sent out of the 

 eountry, unless they were gifts of the king. This showed that he care- 

 fully endeavored to preserve the breed, which was beginning to be ap- 

 preciated by the neighboring countries. A document of the year 1000 

 contains interesting remarks on the value of horses of that time; when 

 a stallion was lost through death or negligence, the owner was entitled 

 to an indemnity of thirty shillings, for a mare or filly, twenty shillings 

 for a mule or donkey twelve shillings, etc., (According to the Anglo 

 Saxon valuation, forty-eight shillings constituted a pound, which is in 

 silver equal to about three pounds of the present currency, and five 

 pence made a shilling. 



To check fraud on the part of dealers, the law gave to the purchaser 

 a certain time to assure himself, that the horse was free of three 

 diseases: three nights for staggers, three months to test the sound. 

 ness of the lungs and one year for glanders. For each defect dis. 

 covered after the sale, one third of the price of the animal had to be re- 

 funded, unless the defect concerned the ear or the tail, because it was 

 supposed that the buyer should have detected these. If one lamed a 

 horse he was compelled to replace its value, and if accused of having 

 c aused its death, twenty-four witnesses had to be procured, who under 

 oath testified to the blamelessness of the accused. 



The renting of horses was customary, and, like to-day, the hired 

 animal was generally abused. The benevolent Howell, Prince of Wales, 

 did not consider it beneath his dignity to issue laws for their protection. 

 >'He who hires a horse and rubs its hair so as to gall the back, shall pay 

 four pence, if the skin is rubbed through to the flesh, eight pmce, and 

 if is sore to the bone, sixteen pence." 



Even at that time there seem to have been persons who took pleas- 



