62 



I could easily return the same day, and he offered 

 me a sorry looking animal that did not look worth 

 two crowns. I expostulated, but he told me to let 

 the horse go ; that I was not to press and not lo stop 

 it, and that I might be assured I should be satisfied. 

 In truth I got to Guildford early in the day, stopped 

 there a few hours and was back in London at seven 

 in the evening. My horse never stopped going at a 

 hand gallop both there and back, excepting on the 

 stones and on the pavement, and there I had to let 

 him walk, for it would have been impossible to go 

 faster : but as soon as he was on the roads he started 

 off at a gallop without a word from me and required 

 no persuasion either with the whip or spurs. This 

 little episode surprised me, but I did not know then 

 the worth of English horses." 



The same writer condemns the London 

 hackney coach as ugly, dirty and badly 

 balanced, but says that "most of the horses 

 are excellent, and fast trotters." 



Thus we see at different times the saddle 

 horse used, tor road travel was known by 

 different terms. Hackney is the earliest. 

 Dame Paston, in 1470 writes of " trotters " ; 

 the Statute of Henry VHI,, t,Ti of 1542, 

 refers to trotting stallions. Hakluyt, in his 

 Collection of Travels, published in the year 

 1600, uses the term " roader " as that in 

 vogue among the colonists of Virginia to 

 describe the saddle horse. 



Eighty-six years later, in 1686, Richard 

 Blome in his Gentleinau's Recreation, writes 



