HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HORSE. 55 



shillings; a mule or young ass, twelve shillings; an ox, thirty pence ; a cow, 

 twenty- four pence ; a pig, eight pence ; and, it strangely follows, a man, one 

 pound *. 



In the laws of Howell Dha, Howell the Good, Prince of Wales, enacted a 

 little before this time, there are some curious particulars respecting the value 

 and sale of horses. The value of a foal not fourteen days old is fixed at four 

 pence ; at one year and a day it is estimated at forty -eight pence ; and at three 

 years, sixty pence. It was then to be tamed with the bridle, and brought up 

 either as a palfrey or a serving horse, when its value became one hundred and 

 twenty pence. That of a wild or unbroken mare was sixty pence. 



Even in those early days, the frauds of dealers were too notorious, and the 

 following singular regulations were established. The buyer was allowed time 

 to ascertain whether the horse was free from three diseases. He had fhreR 

 nights to prove him for the staggers ; three months to prove the soundness of 

 his lungs ; and one year to ascertain whether he was infected with glanders. 

 For every blemish discovered after the purchase, one-third of the money was to 

 be returned, except it should be a blemish of the ears or tail, which it was sup- 

 posed to be his own fault if the purchaser did not discover. The seller also 

 warranted that the horse would not tire when on a journey with others, or 

 refuse his food from hard work, and that he would carry a load or draw a 

 carriage up or down hill, and not be resty. 



The practice of letting horses for hire then existed ; and then, as now, the 

 services of the poor hack were too brutally exacted. The benevolent Howell 

 disdains not to legislate for the protection of this abused and valuable servant. 

 " Whoever shall borrow a horse, and rub the hair so as to gall the back, shall 

 pay four pence ; if the skin is forced into the flesh, eight pence ; if the flesh be 

 forced to the bone, sixteen pence." If a person lamed a horse, he was to forfeit 

 the value of the animal ; and if he was supposed to have killed a horse, he was 

 to purge himself by the oaths of twenty-four compurgators. 



Then, as now, it would appear that some young men were a little too fond of 

 unwarrantable mischief, or perhaps there were thieves in the country, even so 

 soon after Alfred's days, showing also the estimation in which this portion of the 

 animal was held, and the manner in which the hair was suffered to grow, for it 

 was decreed that he who cut off the hair from a horse's tail was to maintain 

 him until it was grown again, and in the mean time to furnish the owner with 

 another horse. If the tail was cut off with the hair, the miscreant who inflicted 

 the outrage was mulcted in the value of the animal, and the horse was deemed 

 unfit for future service. 



Athelstan seems to have placed considerable value on some of his horses ; for 

 he bequeaths, in his will, the horses given him by Thurbrand, and the white 

 horses presented to him by Lisbrand. These are apparently Saxon names, but 

 the memory of them is now lost. 



With William the Conqueror came a marked improvement in the British 

 horse. To his superiority in cavalry this prince was ehiefly indebted for the 

 victory of Hastings. The favourite charger of William was a Spaniard. His 

 followers, both the barons and the common soldiers, principally came from a 

 country in which agriculture had made more rapid progress than in England. 

 A very considerable portion of the kingdom was divided among these men ; and 

 it cannot be doubted that, however unjust was the usurpation of the Norman, 

 England benefited in its husbandry, and particularly in its horses, by the change 



* According to the Anglo-Saxon compute- money. Five pence made one shilling : the 

 tioSi forty-eight shillings made a pound, equal actual value of these coins, however, strangely 

 in silver to about three pounds of our present varied in different times and circumstances. 



