Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-11-09
From the Rider and Driver J
THE HACKNEY HORSE.
JOSEPH BATTELL,
MiddleburV. '


TIE SIXTEENTH ANp SEVENTEENTH CEN
rURY HACKNEY HORSE.
The preamble to the Act last quoted
asserted that the number of horses in the
kingdom had been increased by previous
legislation. The purpose of the new
measure was rather to uphold and in
crease the breeding of one particular
kind of horse-that which was "liahle
for the wares" and, in time of peace,
"apte and mete for the way" As the Act
of l0j characterized it. a few old
documents and writers enable US to take
note of progress made.
r 1t is evident, both from the distinction
made by Fitz-Stephen between trotting
horses and ''horses fit for poughs and
teams" and from the exact language
used by the Act of 1912, which we have
already quoted, that England has had
during at least seven hundred years a
breed of trotting horses; and that these
horses were valued especially as mounts
for esquires, or men-at-arms-in other
words, the rank and file of the cavalry of
the almy-during the Middle Ages and
the Tudor period.
Norfolk trotting horses were costly
stock when the PASSIONS ilourshed in the
county. We learn that in the year l41O
the price of zone of Berney's horse was
twenty marks (fl3 IS. SD, and that mot
penny less would be taken.' CHAT
sum would be equivalent to $3.50 of the
currency of to-day.) But we may sup
pose so large sum was the then value
of a horse "trottng of his own courage,
without force of spurs" as Pastor
letter of the year l47G puts it. The fact
that so much money was asked OF "A
neighbor by one of the Norfolk family
of Berney proves that the horse was a
wel-bred, good one; for eight years
before. in l4G2. Lord Howard, another
Norfolk owner, paid only FL les. Sd.
equivalent to about S2S) for "a grey
nag to send to the French king" Mason,
in his History of Norfolk, says:
The price of cart ses-which in the
thirteenth century ranged from 5s. Cd.
NduOul ~ at uSldllls w 80 OIu' \dDOut
$50 at IIanworth-did not greatly in
crease during the fourteenth and fiji
teenth centuries; but the demand for
good saddle horses, for distinguished and
Opulent persons, gradually rose to some
thing considerable Two were bought
at Yarmouth, for Sir John Fastolfe. in
1875. at eli =. Ga. each (about $500 cur
rency of to-day.
The year los, which saw the accession
of Elizabeth to the English throne, is
noteworthy also for the production of
the first English book on horses: "rhe
foure Choicest Offices belonging to
lIorsemanship which books are
not only paiufullie collected our of "A
number of authors, but also orderly dis
posed aud applied to the use of this our
countrey: BY Master Blundevlle, of
Newton Flotman, in Norfolke."
The English breeders of horse stock in
Blundevlle's day would appear to have
been as DESTROYS as they are now of hav-
ing wide choice. lie says;
Some men would perchance have a
breed of great trOtting horses meete for
the ware and to serve in the field. Some
other againe would have breed of am
bling horses of Il meane stature, for to
journey and to travel by the way. Some
perhaps would have againe "A race of
swift runners to rune for wagers, or to
gallOp the Buckle. or to serve for such
like exercises of pleasure. But the PLANE
cOuntryman would perchance have a
breed only for draught or burthen.
The "plaine countryman" would be
such yeOmen as were Blundeville's neigh
bors in and about Norwich and in the
county of Norfolk. At that time these
squres and yeomen had their own favor
ite breed, which, as will be shown pres.
emily, could trot, pillow or hunt, while
they were also excellent for the draught
"a breed now represented only by the
Norfolk Hackney horse.
Mention is also made of the eight
hOrsemen here in England" riding "in
the warres," either on ambling colts or
on trOtting colts, though the latter were
kept "partely for their servants to ride
on, and to carrie their males and cloke-
bagges after them" That these Eng
lish horses were stout and able to stay
is evident from Blundevlle's assertion
that our men twill not stick to ride
forty, fifty threescore mile day"
In Blundeville's days the best colors
for horses were held to be "the browne
bay, the dapple gray, the bright bay,
the rome, the white lard, the pure black
with white star in his forehead
IMPROVING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
HACKNEY HORSE.
The modern Hackney horse may be
said to have been the product of the
eighteenth century, as was the horse
which we now speak of as the thorough
bred. Singular to say, there was the
most complete similarity in the mode
in which these now diverse varieties