HORSE. Class I. 



Flemish breed, meliorated by our soil, and a 

 judicious culture. 



The English were ever attentive to an exact 

 culture of these animals, and in very early times 

 set a high value on their breed. The esteem 

 that our horses were held in by foreigners so 

 long ago as the reign of Athelstan, may be col- 

 lected from a law of that monarch prohibiting 

 their exportation, except they were designed as 

 presents. These must have been the native 

 kind, or the prohibition would have been need- 

 less, for our commerce was at that time too 

 limited to receive improvement from any but 

 the German kind, to which country their own 

 breed could be of no value. 



But when our intercourse with the other parts 

 of Europe was enlarged, we soon layed hold of 

 the advantages this gave of improving our 

 breed. Roger de Belesme, created Earl of 

 Shrewsbury by William the Conqueror, is the 

 first that is on record : he introduced the Spa- 

 nish stallions into his estate in Powysland, 

 from which cause that part of Wales was for 

 many ages celebrated for a swift and gene- 

 rous race of horses. Gir alius Cambrensis, 

 who lived in the reign of Henry II. takes notice 

 of it;* and Michal Drayton, cotemporary With 



* In hac tertia Wallxae portions quae Powisia dicitux sunt 



