352 



RACING, WAGERS AND GAMING. 



Reign of 

 WiUiam the 

 Conqueror. 



Reign of 

 Henry the 

 First. 



Reign of 

 Henry the 

 Second. 



Reign of 

 Richard the 

 First. 



Reign of 

 John. 



lleigii (it 

 Edward the 

 Second. 



sent abroad for sale, or on any account, except as Royal 

 presents {g). 



William tlie Conqueror was very much indebted to his 

 superiority in cavalry for the victory at Hastings; he 

 introduced the Spanish horse, and his favourite charger was 

 a Spaniard. In his reign there was a marked improvement in 

 the breed of horses, and about a.d. 1066, we have on a piece 

 of tapestry wove at Bayonne, the figure of a man driving a 

 horse and harrow, being the earliest notice of the use of 

 horses in field labour {^). 



In the reign of Henry the First, a.d. 1121, the first 

 Arabian horse on record was introduced by Alexander 

 King of Scotland, who presented it and its furniture to a 

 church {g) . 



In the reign of Henry the Second, forty years afterwards, 

 Smithfield was celebrated as a horse market. Fitz Stephen 

 gives the following animated account of the manner in which 

 hackneys and charging steeds were tried there by racing 

 against one another : "When a race is to be run by this 

 sort of horses, and perhaps by others, vvhich also in their 

 kind are sti;ong and fleet, a shout is immediately raised and 

 the common horses are ordered to withdraw out of the way. 

 Three jockeys, or sometimes only two, as the match is made, 

 prepare themselves for the contest. The horses on their 

 part are not without emulation ; they tremble, and are im- 

 patient, and are continually in motion. At last the signal 

 once given, they start, devour the course, and hurry along 

 with unremitting swiftness. The jockeys, inspired with the 

 thought of applause and the hope of victory, clap spurs to 

 their willing horses, brandish their whips and cheer them 

 with their cries " {h). 



An old Metrical Romance records the excellence and 

 great value of two horses belonging to Richard Coeur de 

 Leon, which he purchased at Cyprus, and which therefore 

 were probably of Eastern origin {i). 



John accumulated a very numerous and valuable stud of 

 horses ; and he formed our breed of draught horses by 

 importing one hundred chosen Flemish stallions {j). 



Edward the Second, one hundred years afterwards, in 

 the beginning of the fourteenth century, purchased thirty 

 Lombardy war horses, and twelve heavy draught horses. 



23. 



(g) Lib. TJ. K. "The Horse," 

 3. 

 (A) See Fitz Stephen, and Lib. 



TJ. K. " The Horse," 24. 



(i) Lib. U. K. " The Horse," 24. 

 [j) Ibid. 25. 



