INTRODUCTORY NOTE
AFTER directly helping on the progress of the world and the development of civilisation almost from the time when, according to Nehring's interesting studies, the wild and primitive horses of the great Drift began to exhibit distinct differences in make, shape and individual characteristics, the horse has reached the limit of its tether.
For with the dawn of the twentieth century, and the sudden innovation of horseless traffic, any further influence that it might have exercised upon the advancement of the human race comes rapidly to a close.
That the horse's reign is over—though it is sincerely to be hoped that horses will be with us still for many years—the statistics issued recently by our Board of Agriculture in a measure prove. For in those statistics it is stated that the number of horses in the United Kingdom decreased during last year alone by no less than 12,312, and later statistics show that the decrease still continues.
In the following pages, therefore, the writer has striven to trace the progress of the horse from very early times down to the present day mainly from the standpoint of the effect its development had upon the advancement of the human race. For this reason though a selected number of the most famous horses that lived in the centuries before Christ, and between the time of Christ and the period of the Norman Conquest, and that have lived within the last nine centuries, have been mentioned, the horses of romance and mythology have for the most part been passed over.
Every effort has been made to obtain information that is strictly accurate, a task of no small difficulty owing to the mass of contradictory evidence with which the writer has found himself confronted in the course of his researches. To the best of his ability he has winnowed the actual facts from the mass of fiction that he has come upon in the writings of some of the earlier historians, and to some extent in records, manuscripts and private letters of more recent times to which he has had access.
B. J. T.
Boodle's Club, 1908.
CONTENTS
| PART I FROM VERY EARLY TIMES TO THE CONQUEST |
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| CHAPTER I | ||
| Page | ||
| Rameses; early Egyptian chariots—Horses of Babylon and of Libya—Erichthonius; horse of Job; horses of Solomon—Early circus riding—Dancing horses of the Sybarites; the Crotonians' stratagem—Homer's “Iliad”; Menesthus; early wagering—Patroclus; Achilles; Euphorbus; Hyperenor—Horses and chariots of the Thracians—Ancient Greeks and horsemanship; decline in the popularity of war chariots; inauguration of cavalry—Xenophon on horsemanship—White horses | 1 | |
| CHAPTER II | ||
| Increasing interest in horses—Herodotus; Thucydides; war chariots of the Persians—Horses represented on coinage—Wooden horse of Troy—The Parthenon frieze; Greek art—Plato; white horses—The procession of Xerxes; horses and men sacrificed—The horse of Darius—Horse racing introduced among the Romans—Xenophon and Simo—Early horseshoes, bits and bitting; ancient methods of mounting | 23 | |
| CHAPTER III | ||
| Xenophon disliked the “American” seat—Cavalry organised by the Athenians—Cost of horses twenty-three centuries ago—Aristophanes; Aristotle; Athenians' fondness for horse racing—Alexander the Great; Bucephalus—Story of Bucephalus; his death—Famous painters of horses: Apelles, Pauson, Micon—Mythical flesh-eating horses of Diomed—Hannibal's cavalry of 12,000 horse—Coins—Posidonius; horses of the Parthians, Iberians and Celtiberians | 45 | |
| CHAPTER IV | ||
| Virgil on the points of a horse—Cæsar's invasion—Abolition of war chariots—Precursor of the horseshoe—Nero's 2000 mules shod with silver; Poppæa's shod with gold—The Ossianic and Cuchulainn epic cycles; Cuchulainn's horses—The Iceni on Newmarket Heath; early horse racing in Britain—Horses immolated by the Romans; white horses as prognosticators—Caligula's horse, Incitatus; Celer, the horse of Verus; the horse of Belisarius | 67 | |
| CHAPTER V | ||
| Mahomet encourages horse-breeding—Procopius; a misstatement—Early allusion to horse races—Figures of horses cut on cliffs—Roland and his horse, Veillantiff—Orelia, Roderick's charger—Trebizond, Alfana; Odin's mythical horse, Sleipnir—Horse fighting in Iceland—Some horses of mythology: Pegasus, Selene, Xanthos, Balios, Cyllaros, Arion, Reksh—Arab pedigrees traced through dams—Influence of the horse upon history—Courage of Julius Cæsar's horses | 86 | |
| PART II FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE STUART PERIOD |
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| CHAPTER I | ||
| The Conqueror's cavalry—Horse fairs and races at Smithfield—King John's foolish fad—The Persians and their horses—Relics of Irish art; what they indicate—Simon de Montfort the first master of foxhounds—The king's right to commandeer horses—Sir Eustace de Hecche; Battle of Falkirk—Marco Polo and white horses; curious superstitions—Edward III. and Richard II. encourage horse breeding—Battle of Crecy | 107 | |
| CHAPTER II | ||
| Richard II.'s horse, Roan Barbary—Thoroughbred English horses characteristic of the nation—Chaucer; Cambuscan's wooden horse—Don Quixote's Aligero Clavileno—Horse race between the Prince of Wales and Lord Arundel—The Chevalier Bayard; his horse, Carman—The Earl of Warwick's horse, Black Saladin—Joan of Arc—King Richard's horse, White Surrey—Charles VIII. of France's horse, Savoy—Dame Julyana Berners—Wolsey's horsemanship—Queen Elizabeth's stud | 127 | |
| CHAPTER III | ||
| Inauguration and development of the Royal Stud—Exportation of horses declared by Henry VIII. to be illegal—Sale of horses to Scotsmen pronounced to be an act of felony—Riding matches become popular—Ferdinand of Arragon's gift of horses to Henry VIII.—Henry's love of hunting—King Henry stakes the bells of St Paul's on a throw of the dice—Some horses of romance—Horse-breeding industry crippled in Scotland | 148 | |
| CHAPTER IV | ||
| North America without horses when Columbus landed—Scarcity of horses at the Conquest of Mexico—Francisco Pizarro; his cavaliers terrify the Indians—Emperor Charles V. sends horses to King Edward VI.—David Hume, “a man remarkable for piety, probity, candour and integrity”; his practices in connection with horse racing—Queen Elizabeth fond of racing; condition of the Turf during her reign—Stallions fed on eggs and oysters—Lord Herbert of Cherbury's antagonistic attitude towards the Turf—Some horses in Shakespeare's plays—Performing horse and its owner publicly burnt to death—Horses trained by cruelty | 168 | |
| CHAPTER V | ||
| King Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth passionately fond of hunting—John Selwyn's remarkable feat in the hunting field; the monument at Walton-on-Thames—Don Quixote and his steed, Rosinante; Peter of Provence's wooden horse, Babieca; Clavileno and the Cid's horse—Mary Queen of Scots' favourite horses—Queen Elizabeth's retinue of 2400 horses—Arundel, Aquiline, Brigadore—The horses of Anatolia and Syria—Sir Robert Carey's historic ride from London to Edinburgh in sixty hours—The horses of Napoleon I. | 187 | |
| PART III FROM THE STUART PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY |
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| CHAPTER I | ||
| Arrival of the Markham Arabian, the first Arab imported into England—Newmarket village founded by James I.—Decline of the “great horse”—The Royal Studs—James I. organises a race meeting on the frozen River Ouse—Superstitious beliefs concerning horses—James I. meets with a grotesque riding mishap—Prosperity of the Turf—Riding match between Lord Haddington and Lord Sheffield—The Turf vigorously denounced as “an evil likely to imperil the whole country's prosperity” | 202 | |
| CHAPTER II | ||
| First races of importance run at Newmarket—Races in Hyde Park—The Helmsley Turk and the Morocco Barb—Racing introduced into Holland—Importation of Spanish stallions into England—Prince Charles's riding master, the Duke of Newcastle—Increasing cost of horses—Marshal de Bassompierre; his loss through gambling, £500,000 in a year; Sir John Fenwick—Sir Edward Harwood's pessimism—Cromwell's Ironsides—Armour discarded—The opposition to stage coaches; Mr Cressett's theory; Charles II. favours their adoption | 222 | |
| CHAPTER III | ||
| The Commonwealth's “ordinance to prohibit horse racing”—Revival of racing under Charles II.—The King a finished horseman—The figure of Britannia—The Royal Mares—Formation of the thoroughbred stud—Thomas Shadwell's cynical description of life at Newmarket—Spread of horse racing in Ireland—Jockeys at Newmarket entertained by Charles II.—Sir Robert Carr; the Duke of Monmouth's connection with the Turf—Annual charge for horses of the Royal household, £16,640—Newmarket under the régime of the Merry Monarch; the Duke of Buckingham | 242 | |
| CHAPTER IV | ||
| Arrival of the Byerley Turk—Roman Catholics forbidden to own a horse worth over £5—Henry Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, on the manners of the age—King William III.'s death due to a riding accident—The Duke of Cumberland's breeding establishment in Queen Anne's reign—Arrival of the Darley Arabian—The Godolphin Arabian—Royal Ascot inaugurated by Queen Anne—“Docking” and “cropping” condemned by Queen Anne; attempt to suppress these practices—The story of Eclipse—Some horses of romance—Copenhagen and Marengo | 261 | |
| CHAPTER V | ||
| A retrospective summary—The beginning of the end—Superstition of the horseshoe—The Bedouins and their horses—Some classic thoroughbreds of modern times—Horses hypnotised—The Derby and the Oaks—Horse racing in Mongolia—Conclusion | 281 | |
| Index | 295 | |