RaceEs. 
HO 8s Crass I. 
part of Wales was for many ages celebrated for a 
fwift and generous race of horfes. Giraldus Cam- 
brenfis, who lived in the reign of Henry Il. takes 
notice of it*; and Adichael Drayton, cotemporary 
with Shake/pear, fings their excellence in the fixth 
part of his Pololbion. This kind was probably 
deftined to mount our gallant nobility, or courte- 
ous knights for feats of Chivalry, in the generous 
contefts of the tilt-yard. From thefe fprung, to 
fpeak the language of the times, the Flower of 
Courfers, whofe elegant form added charms to the 
rider; and whofe activity and managed dexterity 
gained him the palm in that field of gallantry and 
romantic honor. 
Notwichttanding my former fuppofition, races 
were known in England in very early times. Fitz- 
Stephen, who wrote in the days of Henry II. menti- 
ons the great delight that the citizens of London 
took in the diverfion, But by his words, it ap- 
pears not to have been defigned for the purpofes 
of gaming, but merely to have fprung from a 
generous emulation of fhewing a fuperior fkill in 
horfemanfhip. 
Races appear to have been in vogue in the 
reicn of Queen Elizabeth, and to have been carried 
* In hxc tertia Wallie portione que Powfa dicitur funt 
eguitia peroptima, et equi emifiaria laudatiflima, de Hi/pani- 
enfium equcrum generofitate, quos olim Comes Slopefburia 
Robertus de Bele/me in fines iftos adduci curaverat, originaliter 
propagati, Jtiz. Camb. 222, 
to 
