ON HORSE-BREEDING. 21 



reliable authority, but are left to grope 

 pretty much in the dark, from the time when 

 Yegetius wrote in the fourth century on the 

 veterinary art until the days of the Stuarts, 

 in which that serious attention first began 

 to be paid to horse-breeding which has since 

 become so decided a national characteristic. 

 Circumstances had long directed the attention 

 of the Crown to this important matter. In 

 the reign of Henry VIII., by which time we 

 had acquired some knowledge of what was 

 done by other nations, the need of a better 

 horse supply was so much felt that an Act 

 was passed forbidding the turning out of 

 any entire horse that was over two years, 

 and was less than fifteen hands high, on 

 any common or waste land in certain counties, 

 presumably those considered the best adapted 

 for horse-breeding, which included Yorkshire, 

 Lincoln, Cambridge, Suffolk, Northampton, 

 Cheshire, Salop, Hants, Wilts, and Somerset, 

 with some fifteen others, as well as the 



