SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
145 
that the little hardy, shaggy Scotch pony, with poor fare 
and rigorous weather, will now increase much in size and 
appearance under more favorable circumstances. This 
original stock did not, however, pi'oduce the present race 
of horses in England, they having sprung from foreign 
horses, first introduced from Europe and Asia about the 
time of the crusade of King Richard the Lion-Hearted, and 
then by several succeeding generation of English sover- 
eigns. 
It is a matter of historical fact, that the old Norman 
chivalry, after the conquest of England, always rode the 
horse, and never the mare; and churchmen, even of the 
highest dignity, always rode the mare as a mark of their 
humility. 
The native English horses, even in the seventeeth 
century, were very small, though serviceable, and only 
commanding low prices. The best were only valued at 
about sixty shillings, or some fifteen dollars of our money. 
In ‘'an ancient document, issued some time in the 
eleventh century, I have seen the legal remuneration in 
eases of loss of life by negligence, not only of horses, but 
of other animals, and of men. It is worth repeating. The 
owner of a native horse, under such circumstances, could 
claim thirty shillings; fora mare or colt, twenty shillings; 
for a mule or jackass, twelve shillings ; for an ox, thirty 
pence, or about sixty cents of our money ; for a cow, 
twenty pence ; a pig, eight pence ; and if a man lost his 
life through negligence, his heirs could recover twenty 
shillings. It is a strange thing in the relative value of life, 
that though a horse was then esteemed at the low rate of 
only fifteen dollars, a man was held at a third lower, only 
about ten dollars. Though horses and men have both 
advanced in intrinsic value since that day, I am gratified, 
as an evidence of the intelligence of the present century, 
that the value of the human life has increased rather fast- 
er and farther than that of the horse. 
After that time, in the seventeenth century, the breed of 
horses most in demand was the Spanish Jennet, and they 
were imported for all purposes of pageantry or war. The 
aristrocracy had their coaches drawn by the gray Flem- 
ish mares, which were thought to trot with peculiar 
grace, and which endured, better than any others, the 
labor of drawing the lumbei'ing and heavy vehicles of that 
period, over the then rugged and unpaved streets of Lon- 
don. The very common proverb of ‘'the gray mare is 
•the better horse,” applied to those families where the wife 
is supposed to rule the house, is said to have arisen from 
the great preference given to these gray Flemish mares, 
over the best horses of England. It may interest some of 
my agricultural friends to know that a law was enacted 
in the twelfth century, prohibiting the use of horses in the 
plow ; and, though it has been a dead letter for a long 
•time, I think it has never been repealed. The celebrated 
English hunter is supposed to derive its origin from a cross 
between the race horse and some heavy Spanish charger's, 
brought into England in the reign of Edward the Third, and 
they have ever since formed a distinct class. It was dur- 
ing the reign of this king, that horses were first classified, 
giving us reliable data to trace them down. Up to the 
period ofhis rule, one circumstance had operated to keepup 
the large size and strength of the horse, without reference 
to his improvement in other respects. This was the im- 
mense weight of armour worn by the riders in the time of 
battle ; and the objection could not be removed until j 
the discovery of gunpowder. After tliis time, the breed I 
of English horses steadily improved ; though, long since; 
then, the progenitors of the gigantic horses of the present i 
day were brought from the marshes of Walcheren,and the | 
ancestors of Eclipse and Flying Childers were imported' 
from the sands of Arabia. ! 
Even then, the Duke of Newcastle, considered the best ! 
■ authority in the kingdom, said, that the meanest hack of j 
foreign extraction, could produce a better progeny than 
the finest sire of a native breed ; and no one was able to 
foretel that the time would come when the princes and 
nobles of other lands would be as eager to obtain English 
horses, at an exorbitant price, as the English ever were 
to procure those of foreign extraction. 
Before leaving this branch of my subject, for the Ameri- 
can horses, it may interest you to hear some of the strin- 
gent laws made to secure the improvement of the breed in 
England. 
That stern and despotic old king, Henry the Eighth, 
paid particular attention to the matter, and he did not hesi- 
tate to enforce the most arbitrary provisions to attain his 
end. One was, that no brood mare should be allowed un- 
less she was at least fourteen hands high, and to this cir- 
cumstances we may attribute, in a great measure, the al- 
most total extinction of the small breed of Scotch and 
Welsh horses. Also, every archbishop and duke were 
obliged to keep seven stud horses, each above three years 
old, and not less than fourteen hands high. Every clergy- 
man, whose income equalled five hundred dollars per an- 
num, and every layman, whose wife wore a French, or im- 
ported hood or bonnet, must keep one such horse. Any 
failure to do this, was punished by heavy fines and penal- 
ties. Though the rule was so strict upon the nobility and 
persons of wealth, (for five hundred dollars per annnm 
was then an income of more actual value than ten times 
the amount at the present day) the common people might 
keep any mares or horses that they thought proper ; the 
greater expense of the breeding horses inducing the king 
to render their keeping obligatory only upon the better 
classes. While upon this subject, I am reminded of the 
oi'igin of the term “hobby,” applied to any particular idea 
a man may take up, and we frequently hear the expres- 
sion, he has got on his hobby horse. The term was first 
used in this way : the Irish horses are small, and of a pecu- 
liar appearance, and at one time weremuch sought after by 
the whole English nation. They were termed hobbies, 
and the name of the horse finally became fastened upon 
those who sought after them so eagerly, and the remark, 
he has got his hobby at last, came to be used with refer- 
ence to any other thing which occupied a large share of 
the thoughts of any one. 
Queen Elizabeth repealed most of these enactments of her 
father, to give greater facilities for the possession of horses 
suitable for carriages,those articles of luxury being first in- 
troduced in her reign. Up to that time, a queen herself 
possessed no better mode of conveyance than to ride on 
horse-back, on a pillion behind a gentleman, and in the 
imposing coronation ceremony, as at other times, the 
queens did ride in that manner. The necessity of obtain- 
ing good horses for so many carriages gave rise to a large- 
ly increased demand, which did much to improve the 
breed, though the number employed excited considerable 
alarm at one time, so much so, that a bill was brought 
before the House of Lords “to restrain the excessive and 
superfluous use of coaches.” Fortunately it was not pass- 
ed, though it is an evidence of the simplicity of our fore- 
fathers in that age. 
I will only mention one other English horse, before pro- 
ceeding to another topic. It is “Flying Childers;” the 
first native born English race horse, and the progenitor of 
the now unequalled English horse for the race-course. He 
was the immediate descendant of an Arabian horse, ob- 
tained from Aleppo, and as he was the first, so he was the 
fastest race horse ever in England. He ran over a race- 
course, three miles, six furlongs, and ninety-three yards, 
in six minutes and forty seconds. At another time, he 
ran four miles in seven minutes, and in one single minute 
he x'an within a small fraction of a single mile. This 
speed has never been quite equalled in this country, the 
fastest horse being Fashion, and the quickest time being 
