Class I. HORSE. 



Shakespeare, sings their excellence in the sixth 

 part of his Polyolbion. This kind was proba- 

 bly destined to mount our gallant nobility, or 

 courteous knights for feats of chivalry, in the 

 generous contests of the tilt-yard. From these 

 sprung, to speak the language of the times, the 

 Flower of Coursers, whose elegant form added 

 charms to the rider, and whose activity and 

 managed dexterity gained him the palm in that 

 field of gallantry and romantic honor. 



Notwithstanding my supposition, in a former Races. 

 edition, races were known in England in very 

 early times. Fitz-Stephen, who wrote in the 

 days of Henry II. mentions the great delight 

 that the citizens of London took in the diversion ; 

 but by his words, it appears not to have been 

 designed for the purposes of gaming, but merely 

 to have sprung from a generous emulation of 

 shewing a superior skill in horsemanship. 



Races appear to have been in vogue in the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth, and to have been 

 carried to such an excess as to injure the fortunes 

 of the nobility. The famous George Earl of 

 Cumberland is recorded to have wasted more of 



equitia peroptima, et equi emissarii laudatissmi, de Hispanien- 

 sium equorum generositate, quos olim Comes Slopesburice Rober- 

 tas de Belesme in fines istos adduci curaverat, originaliter propa- 

 gati. Itin. Carnb. 222. 



