14 
winter and heat of summer, furnished suff- 
cient reason for the knights to don their mail 
only when actually going into action, or on 
occasions of ceremony. 
“Hengests and somers” were probably 
used for very similar purposes, as more than 
once we find them coupled thus : these were 
the baggage or transport animals, and were 
doubtless of no great value. ‘Courser” is a 
term somewhat loosely used in the old 
records ; it is applied indifferently to the war 
horse, to the horse used in hunting, and for 
daily road work, but generally in a sense 
that suggests speed. ‘‘ Trotters,” we must 
assume, were horses that were not taught to 
amble; and the name was distinctive at a 
period when all horses used for saddle by the 
better classes were taught that gait. Edward 
III.’s Wardrobe Accounts mention payment 
for ¢rammels, the appliances, it is supposed, 
used for this purpose, and at a much later 
date in another Royal Account Book, we find 
an item ‘To making an horse to amble, 2 
marks (13s. 4d.).”. The amble was a pecu- 
liarly easy and comfortable pace which would 
strongly commend itself to riders on a long 
” 
journey. Hobbies were Irish horses, small 
but active and enduring ; genets were Span- 
ish horses nearly allied to, if not practically 
