Beauty of the Gennet. 107 
Fynes Moryson, describing the natural commodities of 
the Irish, says :— 
“ Their horses, called 'hobbies, are much commended for their 
ambling pace and beuty : but Ireland yeelds few good horses for 
service in war, and the said hobbies are much inferior to our geldings 
in strength to endure long journies, and being bred in the fenny soft 
ground of Ireland, are soone lamed when they are brought into 
England.” ( Itinerary , 1617, part iii. p. 160.) 
Galloway nags are said to have sprung from some 
Spanish stallions washed on shore at Galloway, 
during the wreck of the Armada. Gam bald¬ 
ing horses were managed horses of show and parade. The 
gennet, which Froissart calls a light speedy pleasure 
horse, Cotgrave makes a Spanish horse. Hackneys, a 
word derived from the French haquenee , and the Italian 
achinea, a little nag, and not, as Maitland ( History of 
London , p. 1365) supposes, from hired horses being 
chiefly engaged for journeys to Hackney, were ridden 
in marches to ease the war-horses (Fosbroke, Enc. of 
Antiquities , vol. ii. p. 1018, ed. 1843). 
The Gennet was kept principally for display, and was 
a handsome showy animal. In Win wood’s 
State Papers (vol. ii. p. 149) we find a letter aennet - 
from Sir Charles Cornwallis, 1605, to the Earl of 
Salisbury. He writes from Spain, of the Spaniards, “ If 
they get but a day’s rest they are not unlike your 
pampered gennets, which are only estimable for their 
outward show, nothing for service of effect.” Philip 
Bliss, in his edition of Bishop Earle’s Microcosmography , 
gives a passage from an early writer, name unknown, who 
enthusiastically praises this kind of horse:— 
“ When Nature first framed him she took a secret complacence in 
her worke. He is even her masterpeece in irracionall things, borrowing 
somewhat of all things to set him forth. For example, his silke bay 
coat hee tooke from the chesnut; his necke from the rainbow, which 
perhaps makes him rain so well. His maine belike he took from 
