THE 
that ambling was constantly practised by the Anglo-Saxons 
and Normans, especially in the diversions of hunting and 
hawking. In the Bayeux Tapestry “one” arrives before 
Duke William on an ambling horse. 
We have the testimony of Chaucer that the Canterbury 
Pilgrims made their journey on amblers. The illuminated 
manuscript of the “ Canterbury Tales,” in the Ellesmere 
Collection, confirms the poet’s assertions. The “ good wyf ” 
is seated, masculine fashion, on an “ amblere ” in a phase 
exactly corresponding with 2, series 24; the horses of 
many others of the company are also represented as 
practising the same motion, the favourite position more 
or less resembling that of 3, with A or A alone on the 
ground. The prologue has— 
“ A good Wyf was ther bisyde Bathe . . . 
Vppon an amblere esely sche sat ; ” 
and “The Tale of Sir Thopas,” Fyt I.— 
“ His steed was al dappul gray 
Hit goth an ambel in the way, 
Ful softely and rounde.” 
Gov^er, in “ Confessio Amantis,” has— 
“ On fayre ambulende hors thet set,” 
and— 
“ Thei set him on an ambuling palfray.” 
In the “ Morte d’Arthur,” translated from the French 
in the fifteenth century by Sir Thomas Malory, the “ softe 
ambuler ” is often alluded to. 
9 1 
In “ The regulations a nd Establishment of the House- 
hold of Algernon Percy the Fifth Earl of Northumberland. 
Begun anno 1512” there occurs— 
“ Item, palfreys for my ladys, to wit, one for my lady, and two for her 
gentill-woinen. 
“ An amblynge horse for his lordship to journey on dayly. 
“ A proper amblyng little nagg for his lordship when he gaeth on 
hunting or hawking.” 
Polydore Virgil, in the fifteenth-sixteenth century, says 
English horses “ are not given to the trot, but excel in the 
softer paces of the amble.” 
Holinshead, sixteenth century, says, “ The Irish hobbie 
is easie in ambling, and verie swift in running.” 
Shakespeare was evidently perfectly familiar with this 
pleasant mode of progress ; he uses it as a metaphor in 
“ As You Like It,” iii. 2, and in “ Much Ado about Nothing,” 
v. 1. 
Ben Jonson, also, in “ Every Man in his Humor,” meta¬ 
phorically says, “ Out of the old hackney pace, to a fine 
easy amble.” 
Cervantes, in “ Don Quixote,” ii. 40, as translated by 
Skelton, gives an admirable description of this motion : 
“ This horse . . . ambles in the ayre, without wings, and 
he that rides upon him may carry a cup full of water in his 
hand, without spilling a jot; he goes so soft and so easie.” 
Gervase Markham, a celebrated authority on horses, 
writing in [615, says, “ The ambler ... is the horse of the 
old man, the rich man, and the weak man.” 
Gibbon, “ Roman Empire,” lviii., speaks of the w r ar- 
