THEIR HISTORY, RISE AND PROGRESS. 357 



mare whose value did not exceed ten sMllings might be 

 exported (l). 



It appears that so far the statutes on the subject of Keigii of 

 gaming had been directed against it, because it was sup- -^^^'^ 

 posed to withdraw men from the practice of archery, which 

 seems to have been neglected, where these other sports had 

 obtained popularity. But in the reign of Philip and 

 Mary, gaming had become very inconvenient on other 

 grounds ; for it appeared, that " by reason of divers sundry 

 licenses theretofore granted to divers persons, as well within 

 the city of London and the suburbs, as elsewhere," for 

 " keeping of houses, gardens and places for bowling, 

 tennis, dicing, white and black, making and marring, 

 and other unlawful games, many unlawful assemblies, 

 conventicles, seditions, and conspiracies," had been daily 

 and secretly practised, and robberies and -other misde- 

 meanours had been committed by idle and misruled people 

 resorting there. To remedy these evils an Act was passed 

 in A.D. 1555, " to avoid divers licences for houses where 

 unlawful games be used," and all placards, licences or 

 grants were made void (m). In the same year of the reign 

 an Act was passed, " against the buying of stolen horses," 

 and certain regulations were prescribed for the sale of 

 horses at markets and fairs (n). 



Notwithstanding the regulations made in the reign of ^^^S" '^ 

 Edward the Sixth, it appears that a large number of horses i,eth!° 

 were exported by persons who unscrupulously took the 

 required oath, and the difficulty of punishing them was so 

 great, that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a.d. 1562, the 

 permission to persons to take horses abroad for their own 

 use was repealed {o). 



It was now found that in the Isle of Ely and in the 

 counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, Lincoln, 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, the fens were so wet and rotten that 

 they could not carry stoned horses of the size mentioned in 

 the Act of Henry the Eighth (^), without danger of their 

 being mired or drowned. The horses of many poor men 

 had been seized as being beneath the statutable height, and 

 the breed of horses and all the tillage and carriage within 



(l) 1 Edw. 6, c. 5, s. 1, now re- dix ; and see Stolen Horses, ante, 



pealed by 3 Geo. 4, c. 41, s. 9. Part 1, Chap. III. 



(m) 2 & 3 Ph. & M. c. 9, repealed (o) 5 Eliz. c. 19, repealed by 26 & 



by 26 & 27 Vict. c. 125. 27 Vict. c. 125. 



(«) 2 & 3 Ph. & M. c. 7, Appen- {p) 32 Hen. 8, c. 13. 



