58 



for the saddle, each horse to be three years 

 old and upwards and at least 14 hands in 

 height. Every marquis, earl and wealthy 

 bishop, was to keep five such trotter stal- 

 lions ; other bishops, viscounts and wealthy 

 barons, were obliged to keep three ; less 

 wealthy persons two ; and every layman 

 who wore a silk gown, or whose wife wore 

 "any French hood or bonnet of velvet," 

 with any of certain specified articles of 

 jewelry, was obliged to keep one stoned 

 trotting horse for the saddle. 



The wording of this law is notable, as it 

 indicates recognition of the trotting horse as 

 a distinct breed ; it ordains that maintenance 

 of " cart horses and sumpter horses " shall 

 not be reckoned compliance with its pro- 

 visions, these being animals of different and 

 inferior types. 



It is both interesting and significant to 

 find that, long before Henry VIII.'s Act to 

 encouraoe the breedinp' of trotters was 

 placed on the Statute Book, trotting horses 

 were held in particular esteem in Norfolk, 

 the county with which the Hackney has 

 always been identified. 



One of the famous Paston Letters, written 

 in 1470, makes mention of " one of Berney 's 

 horses," for which 20 marks, or ^13 i6s. 8d. 



