22 



attempt to keep horses at home proved some- 

 thing of a failure. 



To show what stage of development the 

 Great Horse had reached in the time of 

 Henry VH., art comes to our aid in the 

 shape of a picture by Albert Durer, dated 

 1505. This is the earliest work we have 

 found, and though the animal portrayed is 

 not of necessity an English bred Great Horse, 

 it represents the stamp of animal then in use 

 for similar purposes in Germany ; and from 

 the banks of the Elbe, as we have already 

 seen, stallions were imported into England 

 for the Royal Studs. It is quite possible that 

 the horse whose portrait Dtirer's brush has 

 left us was one of English raising. A white 

 horse of size, weight and power, such as this, 

 was just the gift one ruling prince might have 

 sent to another at a time when animals of 

 that colour possessed the peculiar ceremonial 

 value to which reference has been made, 

 and it is far from unlikely that this par- 

 ticular animal was a royal gift from Henry 

 VH. to Maximilian I. or to some other 

 German prince. However that may be, 

 two thino^s are certain ; it was a war 

 horse, as the dress of the soldier attendant 

 indicates ; and the height, bulk, sloping 

 quarters, abundant mane and tail, and well 



