35 
separate establishments, and each kept a 
large number of horses, including race- 
horses. The English system of stable 
management had made such advances at 
this time that Marshal Bassompierre, the 
French Ambassador in London, refers to 
it in his memoirs, and recommends that 
English methods be followed in France. 
The same writer speaks, too, of the supe- 
riority of English horses. 
The hackney-coach question came up 
again in this reign, and Charles issued a 
Proclamation dealing with the subject 
in January, 1636. He forbade the use of 
coaches in London and Westminster unless 
they were about to make a journey of at 
least three miles; and he required every 
owner of a coach to keep four horses for 
the King’s service. We may conjecture 
that his prohibition of hackney coaches was 
not the outcome of a desire to encourage 
horsemanship ; for about eighteen months 
later he granted to his Master of the Horse, 
James, Marquis of Hamilton, power to 
license fifty hackney coachmen in London 
and the suburbs and convenient places in 
other parts of the realm. This license, 
granted by Proclamation in July, 1637, 
suggests favouritism, as according to a con- 
