6 
describes these horses as of a class adapted 
to the “purposes of war and the exhibition 
of public assemblies. 
There is nothing to tell us when horses 
were first used in agriculture in England ; 
the earliest mention of such, some consider- 
able research has revealed, is the reference 
to “four draught horses” owned by the 
proprietor of an Essex manor in the reign 
of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). 
Under the Norman and Plantagenet kings 
the plough appears to have been adapted for 
draught by either oxen or horses. The 
former undoubtedly were the more generally 
used, and continued in use until compara- 
tively recent times in some parts of the 
country. 
One of the pieces of tapestry worked in 
Bayonne in 1066 shows the figure of a man 
driving a horse harnessed to a harrow. This 
is the earliest pictorial evidence we possess 
of the employment of the horse in field labour. 
The Conqueror and his followers came 
from a country in which agriculture was in 
a more advanced state than it was in Eng- 
land, and it cannot be doubted that the 
Normans did much to promote the interests 
of English husbandry. 
