ANIMALS. 489 



Strength and swiftness were more regarded than teaiity; the 

 horses' shapes, in time of action, being entirely hid by a coat of 

 armour which the knights then usually put upon them either 

 by way of ornament or defence. 



The number of our horses in London alone, in the time of 

 king Stephen, is said to have amounted to twenty thousand. 

 However, long after, in the times of queen Elizabeth, the whole 

 kingdom could not supply two thousand horses to form our ca- 

 valry. At present, the former numbers seem revived, so that in 

 the late war, we furnished out above thirteen thousand horsemen ; 

 and could, if hard pushed, supply above four times that number. 

 How far this great increase of horses among us may be benefi- 

 cial or otherwise, is not the proper business of the present page 

 to discuss ; but certain it is, that where horses increase in too 

 great a degree, men must diminish proportionably ; as that food 

 which goes to supply the one, might very easily be converted in- 

 to nourishment to serve the other. But, perhaps, it may be 

 speculating too remotely, to argue for the diminution of their 

 numbers upon this principle, since every manufacture we export 

 into other countries, takes up room, and may have occupied that 

 place, which in a state of greater simplicity, might have given 

 birth and subsistence to mankind, and have added to popu- 

 lation.* 



* The earliest record of the horse in Great Britain is contained in tlie his- 

 tory given by Julius Caesar of his invasion of our island. The British army 

 was accompanied by numerous war chariots, drawn by horses. Short scythes 

 were fastened to the ends of the axletrees, sweeping- down every thing be- 

 fore them, and carrying terror and devastation into the ranks of their enemies. 

 The conqueror gives a most animated description of the dexterity with which 

 the liorses were managed. What kind of horse the Britons then possessed, 

 it would be useless to iuquire ; but, from the cumbrous structure of the car, 

 and the fury with which it was driven, and from tlie badness or nonexistence 

 of the roads, they must liave been both active and powerful in an extraordi- 

 nary degree. Caesar deemed them so valuable, that he carried many of them 

 to Rome, and the British horses were, for a considerable period aftern ards, 

 ■n great request in various parts of the Roman empire. Horses must at that 

 time liave been exceedingly numerous in Britain, for we are told that when 

 the British king, Cassibellaunus, dismissed the main body of his .-.rmy. he re- 

 tained four thousand of his war chariots for the purpose of harrassing the 

 Romans, when they attempted to forage. 



'I'he British horse now received its first cross; bnt whether the breed was 

 thereby improved cannot be ascertained. The Homana having established 

 themselves in BriUiin, found it necessary to send over a numerous body of 

 cavalry to maintain a chain of posts and cluck the frequent insurrections of 



