Chapter I: Front Matter

THE HORSE IN HISTORY

_From an engraving by Albert Dürer_]

THE

HORSE IN HISTORY

BY

BASIL TOZER

AUTHOR OF

“PRACTICAL HINTS ON RIDING TO HOUNDS” ETC.

WITH TWENTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS

METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON

_First Published in 1908_

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

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

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

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