62 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HORSE. 



A grete doble trottynge hors, called a curtal *, for his lordship to ride on out 

 of townes. Another trottynge gambaldynge + hors, for his lordship to ride 

 upon when he comes into townes. An ambling hors for his lordship to jour- 

 ney on dayly. A proper amblyng little nagg for his lordship when he goeth on 

 hunting or hawking. A gret amblynge gelding or trottynge gelding to carry his 

 male." 



Sir Thomas Chaloner, who wrote in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, 

 and whose praise of the departed monarch may be supposed to be sincere, 

 speaks in the highest terms of his labour to introduce into his kingdom every 

 variety of breed, and his selection of the finest animals which Turkey, or 

 Naples, or Spain, or Flanders, could produce. Sir Thomas was now ambassa- 

 dor at the court of Spain, and had an opportunity of seeing the valuable horses 

 which that country could produce ; and he says that " England could furnish 

 more beautiful and useful breeds than any which foreign kingdoms could 

 supply." The fact was, that except for pageantry or war, and the slow travel- 

 ling of those times, there was no motive to cultivate any new or valuable breed. 

 The most powerful stimulus had not yet been applied J. 



Berenger, who would be good authority in such a case, provided experienced 

 and skilful persons to preside in his stables, and to spread by these means the 

 rules and elements of horsemanship through the nation. He invited two 

 Italians, pupils of Pignatelli the riding-master of Naples, and placed them in his 

 service ; and he likewise had an Italian farrier named Hannibale, who, Beren- 

 ger, quaintly remarks, " did not discover any great mysteries to his English 

 brethren, but yet taught them more than they knew before." 



There is nothing worthy of remark in the short reign of Edward VI., except 

 the constituting the stealing of horses a felony without benefit of clergy. 



In the twenty-second year of Elizabeth, the use of coaches was introduced. 

 It has been already remarked that the heads of noble houses travelled almost 

 from one end of the kingdom to the other on horseback, unless occasionally 

 they took refuge in the cars that were generally appropriated to. their household. 

 Even the Queen rode behind her master of the horse when she went in state to 

 St. Paul's. The convenience of this new mode of. carriage caused it to be 

 immediately adopted by all who had the means; and the horses were so rapidly 

 bought up for this purpose, and became so exorbitantly dear, that it was 

 agitated in parliament whether the use of carriages should not be confined to 

 the higher classes. 



This fashion would have produced an injurious effect on the character of 

 the English horse. It would have too much encouraged the breed of the 

 heavy and slow horse, to the comparative or almost total neglect of the 

 lighter framed and speedy one ; but, gunpowder having been invented, and 

 heavy armour beginning to be disused, or, at this period, having fallen into 

 almost perfect neglect, a lighter kind of horse was necessary in order to give 

 effect to many of the manoeuvres of the cavalry. Hence arose the light cavalry 

 — light compared with the horsemen of former days — heavy compared with 

 those of modern times ; and hence, too, arose the lighter horse, which, except 

 for a few particular purposes, gradually superseded the old heavy war and. 

 draught horse. 



An account has already been given of the occasional races at Smithfield. 



• A curtal horse is one with a docked tail, of horse on which a nobleman could best show 



Thus, Ben Jonson :— « Hold my stirrup, my himself off when he entered a tovm.—Beren- 



one lacquey, and look to my curtal the other." ger on Horsemanship, vol. ii. p. 178, to 



t Gambaldynge.— Gambald was the old whom the author acknowledges much obliga- 



word for gambol, and it means a horse that was lion here, and on other occasions, 



fond of playing and prancing about— the kind J De Republica Anglorum iustauranda. 



