ANIMALS. VJ5 



upon which many volumes might easily be written, I will con- 

 tent myself with just mentioning the description of Camerarius, 

 in which he professes to unite all the perfections which a horse 

 ought to be possessed of: — "It must," says he, "have three 



ally a wooden bell adorned with flowers. This was afterwards exchanged 

 ior a silver bell, and " given to liiin who should run the best and farthest on 

 horseback on Shrove Tuesday" Heuee the common phrase of "bearing 

 away the bell." 



Horse-raeing became gradually more cultivated ; but it wrvs not until the 

 last year of the reign of James I., that rules were promulgated andgenerally 

 subscribed to for their regulation. That prince was fond of field sports. He 

 had encouraged if he did not establish horse-racing in Scotland, and he brought 

 with him to England his predilection for it ; but his races were more often 

 matches against time, or trials of speed and bottom, for absurdly and cruelly 

 long distances. His favourite courses were at Croydon and on Enfield Chase. 



Although the Turkish and Barbary horses had been freely used to produce 

 with the English mare the breed which was best suited to this exercise, 

 little improvement had been effected. James, with great judgment, deter- 

 mined to try the Arab breed. Probably, he had not forgotten the story of 

 the Arabian which had been presented to one of his Sjcottish churches, five 

 centuries before. He purchased from a merchant named Markham, a cele- 

 brated Arabian horse, for which he gave the extravagant sum of five hun- 

 dred pounds. Kings, however, like their subjects, are often thwarted and 

 governed by their servants, and the Duke of Newcastle took a dislike to this 

 foreign animal. He wrote a book, and a very good one, on horsemanship, 

 and described this Arabian as a little bony horse, of ordinary shape, setting 

 him down as good for nothing, because, after being' regularly trained, he could 

 not race. The opinion of the Duke, probably altogether erroneous, had, for 

 nearly a century, great weight ; and the Arabian horse lost its reputation 

 among the English turf breeders. 



A South-Eastern horse was afterwards brought into England, and pur. 

 chased by James, of Mr Place, who was afterwards stud-master, or groom, 

 to Oliver Cromwell. This beautiful animal was called the White Turk, and 

 his name and that of his keeper will long be remembered. Shortly after, 

 wards appeared the Helmsley Turk, introduced by Villiers, the first duke of 

 Buckingham. He was followed by Fairfax's Morocco Barb. These horses 

 speedily effected a considerable change in the character of our breed, so that 

 Lord Harleigh, one of the old school, complained that the great horse was 

 fast disappearing, and that horses were now bred light and tine for the sake 

 of speed only. 



Charles I. ardently pursued this favourite object of English gentlemen, 

 and a little before his rupture with the parliament, established races in Hydu 

 l';\rk, and at Newmarket. The civil war somcnvliat suspended th(! improve, 

 ment of the breed ; yet the advantage which was derived by bcitli parties 

 from a light and active cavalry, sufliciently proved the importance of the 

 ohange which had been ettected ; and Cromwell perceiving, with his wonted 

 Bngacity, how mucli these pursuits were connected with the prosperity of 

 ihe country, had his stud of race-horses. 



At tht Restoration a new impulse wa; iiWen to Ihe cultivation of the hors ■ 



