292 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



which provided for the estabhshment of Haras throughout 

 the kingdom, sets forth the urgency of the horse-breeding 

 question, and the steadfast determination of the king to come 

 to the rescue of a perishing industry by a large measure of 

 State aid, ' de telle sorte.' says this ' Arret,' ' que les sujets de 

 sa majeste ne soient pas obliges de porter leurs deniers dans 

 les pays etrangers pour achats de chevaux.' 



Both Louis XIV. and Louis XV. got their horses from 

 England. Their hackneys came chiefly out of Suffolk, and 

 their hunters from Yorkshire — the latter were called ' Court- 

 aults ' from having their ears cropped, and were docked very 

 short. Eight hundred francs was an average price given 

 for hunt horses, and if Oudry's pictures are to be trusted, the 

 royal stud got good value for its money. 



The Duke of Newcastle's beautiful book, of which the 

 still more beautiful MS. is now at Welbeck, was published 

 in 1667. It is significant that in his vivid descriptions, or 

 rather narratives, of the various breeds of riding horses, their 

 qualities and their points, he makes no mention of a distinct 

 French breed, whilst he devotes a separate chapter apiece 

 to the ways and uses of the Polander, the Swede, and the 

 Frisian. This is the more significant in view of the ascen- 

 dency of French horsemanship at the time. As we have 

 already seen, the Duke of Newcastle makes most special 

 mention of individual French horsemen and of French riding 

 generally, but says not a word about French horses. * Barbs,' 

 he told Don John of Austria with happy courtesy, when he 

 was presented to him at Amsterdam, ' are the gentlemen of 

 horse kind, and Spaniards the Princes.' The Duke also held 

 the Naples courser in honourable esteem, but for his own 

 riding he preferred Barbs, Spaniards, and, it sounds strangely 

 in our ears, Dutch-bred horses. 



M. Fran9ois de Guise, Grand Veneur to Francois II. and 

 Charles IX., agreed witli tlie ])uke of Newcastle in liking 



