35 



«)f the war horses of the time, and Indicates 

 that the '' misfits " of the Great Horse breed, 

 as we might suppose, were relegated to the 

 waggon and the plough. The passage " But 



now to content better than here in 



Englande," continues : — 



" whereas he male easihe hnd a number of strong 

 jades more meet for that purpose than for the saddle, 

 and all for lack of good order of breeding which if it 

 might be once observed in this realme I believe there 

 would be so good and so faire horses bred here as 

 in anie place in Christendome.'" 



The need of more legislation on the sub- 

 ject, or better administration of the existing 

 laws, is here very plainly indicated. 



When discussing the adv^antages of gelding- 

 horses for use on the road, Blundeville in- 

 cidentally bears out what we already know, 

 viz., that the animals used by heavily 

 armoured cavalry were entires. "Our light 

 horsemen here in England,"' he says, ''do 

 in like manner serve upon geldings in the 

 warres .... partly for servants to ride 

 on and to carie their males [mail] and cloke 

 bagges." 



The invention of gunpowder and its 

 application to hand firearms produced the 

 inevitable effect upon heavy armour in the 

 last quarter of the sixteenth century. Sir 

 John Smythe writing in 1589, the year after 



