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THE GREAT HORSE

OR

SHIRE HORSE

THE GREAT HORSE

OR

The WAR HORSE: from the time of the Roman Invasion till its development into the

SHIRE HORSE

BY

SIR WALTER GILBEY BART.

SECOND EDITION

LONDON

VINTON & CO., LIMITED

9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C.

1899

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Since the publication in 1889 of the first edition of this little book, which I was privileged to dedicate to His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, great progress has been made in the improvement of the Shire Horse. It therefore has seemed desirable to remodel and enlarge, by the inclusion of more minute details, pages which had been compiled from notes taken in course of an enquiry into the antecedents of the horse now known as the Shire-bred. This research led to the conclusion that the Shire Horse is the purest survival of the type described by mediæval writers as the Great Horse; and this type being the native development of that ancient British War Horse which evoked the admiration of Julius Cæsar, it seemed appropriate to seek permission to dedicate the book to the Prince who combined with his high position as Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty’s Forces, the keenest interest in those breeds of horses which are most useful to the State.

It would be easy to multiply _ad infinitum_ such evidence as is here quoted, but it is unnecessary to encumber the narrative with repetition of details which throw no fresh light upon the history of the breed. These pages have been written for the convenience of those who desire to possess in concise form knowledge of the main facts concerning the origin and development of this truly noble and most useful animal, and to point out the true type of the “Shire Horse.” It is not claimed that there is any information contained in this work which those who are interested in the subject may not, with an equal amount of patient reading obtain for themselves.

_Elsenham Hall, Essex, January, 1899._

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Introduction 1

The Chariot Horse of the Ancient Britons 5

The Great Horse in the First Century 7

From the Seventh Century to the Conquest 11

From the Conquest to the Reign of King John 13

The Great Horse in the Thirteenth Century 16

From the Time of Edward III. to Edward IV. 18

The Laws of Henry VII. 20

The Laws of Henry VIII. 23

Queen Elizabeth’s Time 27

James I. 36

Charles I. 39

From the Commonwealth to William III.’s Time 42

Queen Anne’s Reign 48

The Shire Horse in the Nineteenth Century 58

How to Preserve its Character 61

The Foreign Market 62

The Shire Horse Society 65

ILLUSTRATIONS.

FACING PAGE

German Knight of the Fifteenth or Sixteenth Century (Frontispiece)

British Coins of the First Century 7

Great Horse; after Albert Dürer 22

Equestrian Figure in Tilting Armour, Sixteenth Century 26

Sir Walter Hungerford, Knight of Heytesbury 30

The Duke of Arenburg; after Vandyke 38

Seals of Charles I. 41

The Protector on a Great Horse 42

Great Horse; after Paul Potter 46

Norfolk Cart Horse, Dodman (1780) 53

A Leicestershire Shire Horse; after Garrard (1720 to 1795) 54

Shire Horse, Elephant 56

A Shire Gelding of Messrs. Whitbread’s (1792) 57

Piebald Shire Horses, Pirate and Outlaw (1810) 58

Piebald Plough Teams (1844-1855) 58

Honest Tom (1865) 60

Blythwood Conqueror (1893) 64

A HISTORY TRACING

THE SHIRE HORSE

TO THE

OLD ENGLISH GREAT HORSE

(THE WAR HORSE).

INTRODUCTION.

The number of books about horses which have been printed is very large; a good authority states that the total is upward of four thousand volumes; and therefore another seems almost superfluous. Yet from that early book of Wynkyn de Worde, printed in A.D. 1500, Thomas Blundeville’s in 1566, the Duke of Newcastle’s in 1658, and the work by Sir Wm. Hope, Kt., Deputy Lieutenant of Edinburgh Castle, published in 1717, to the host of books on horses which have appeared during the last twenty years, there is not one which can be said to render full justice to the peculiarly English breed whose history it is proposed to examine.

By the exercise of care and judgment Englishmen have achieved many triumphs as breeders of domestic animals; and none of these, perhaps, are more conspicuous than the establishment of the two types of horse--the race horse and heavy draught horse; breeds differing as widely one from the other as the greyhound differs from the mastiff. Each horse is in its own way almost perfect; the former having been brought to the highest state of development for speed, the latter to the highest development of strength; and it would be difficult to maintain that one is more beautiful than the other. Many volumes have been written on the racehorse, and innumerable lives and fortunes have been devoted to perfecting the breed; and if little has been written concerning the draught horse, it will be possible to show that for generations before our time no little attention has been bestowed also upon his improvement.

The aim of the following pages is to set out in convenient form some facts relating to the heavy horse as it existed during the early and middle ages, long before it was brought into general use for farm work and for drawing heavy loads. Exceptional historic interest attaches to this breed; for its lot has been closely interwoven with that of the people of Britain from the earliest times. It is not a little curious to reflect that the animal which formed the very backbone of our ancestors’ independence--on which our forefathers depended for their strength and prowess in the Art of War, is the animal on which we depend to carry on the operations of Agriculture and Commerce--the arts of peace. It must not be forgotten that the use of the horse in agriculture is comparatively modern. In England until the middle ages the work of the farm and almost all heavy draught work was performed by oxen. These animals were in common use for farm work until the latter half of the last century. Arthur Young in his _General View of the Agriculture of Lincolnshire_, written in 1799, mentions a farm he visited where he saw “two (oxen) and a horse draw home in a waggon as good loads of corn as are common in Suffolk with three horses.” He says further, “about Grantham many oxen have been worked, but all have left off; once they were seen all the way from Grantham to Lincoln, now scarcely any; a pair of mares and one man will do as much work as four oxen and two men.... On the Wolds most farmers have some oxen for working, leading manure, corn and hay.” When horses began to be employed by ordinary occupiers of land they were animals by no means remarkable for strength and substance; “stots” and “affers,” as these were called, were of a stamp distinct from the “Strong” or “Great” horses which in those days were bred and reserved for purposes neither agricultural nor commercial.

The early foundation stock from which investigation proves that our modern Shire horses are descended was brought to a high state of perfection for its special purpose, not only by the judicious introduction of foreign blood, but by wise enactments of the Legislature. We find in the old Statute Books numerous Acts of Parliament which supported private skill and enterprise in the endeavour to improve an animal on which, it may fairly be said, the safety of the nation in no small measure depended.

The facts which it is proposed to set before the reader are, for the most part, the fruit of careful research among old records; and it must be added that figures worked in tapestry, rude paintings of incidents and illustrations which sometimes occur in these records, have frequently been more helpful than the manuscripts themselves. The artist perpetuates what the writer from sheer familiarity ignores; and for this reason the works of old painters have been laid under contribution in the present survey of the Great Horse breed.

THE CHARIOT HORSE OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

No very profound enquiry is needed to furnish us with a starting point in the history of the Great Horse. We need go no farther than our old school friend Cæsar, and examine his account of the forces which resisted his descent upon England in the year 55 B.C.--nearly two thousand years ago. The following familiar passage (from Camden’s translation, _Britannia_, 4th edition) throws valuable light on the stamp of horse which was employed in warfare by the early Britons:--

“Most of them use chariots in battle. They first scour up and down on every side, throwing their darts; creating disorder among the ranks by the terror of their horses and noise of their chariot wheels. When they have got among the troops of [their enemies’] horse, they leap out of the chariots and fight on foot. Meantime the charioteers retire to a little distance from the field, and place themselves in such a manner that if the others be overpowered by the number of the enemy, they may be secure to make good their retreat. Thus they act with the agility of cavalry; and the steadiness of infantry in battle. They become so expert by constant practice that in declivities and precipices they can stop their horses at full speed; and, on a sudden, check and turn them. They run along the pole, stand on the yoke, and then, as quickly, into their chariots again. They frequently retreat on purpose, and after they have drawn men from the main body, leap from their pole, and wage an unequal war on foot.”

It is obvious from this that the horses used must have possessed strength, substance, courage and docility. The war chariot of our forefathers was not a model of elegance and lightness; it was required to manœuvre over the roughest of ground, carrying several fighting men, and the needful strength could only be obtained as the result of weight and clumsiness. To draw such a vehicle at speed and force a way among disciplined cavalry, horses of substance, power, and courage were required; while the ability of the charioteers to “stop their horses at full speed; and on a sudden, check and turn them,” points not only to strength and weight, but to docility and handiness. Those who saw these animals have recorded their admiration, holding them different from, and superior to, any horses they had seen before; and these witnesses, we must remember, were acquainted with most breeds

of horses employed by the nations of their time.

THE GREAT HORSE IN THE FIRST CENTURY.

Our next piece of evidence comes, not from the writer but from the artist, if he may be called so; not from without the shores of Britain but from within. For some historical purposes coins serve a purpose as valuable as pictures, and the present is a case in point. The coins of which illustrations are here given are among the very earliest known to have been struck in this island. They date from the age of Cunobelin (the First century), and are therefore the production of a period when neither Art nor Agriculture had place in the country; they are relics of a time when the conditions of life required only the herdsman and the soldier. With these facts in mind we may examine these coins and see what we can gather from them. The fact that the device on each is a horse suggests at once that this animal played a most important part in the social economy of the people who struck the coins. They were among those found on the borders of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and are believed to have been circulated in the interest of the Iceni, a tribe which distinguished itself above all others by its resolute resistance to the Roman troops.

The head and front of the power of resistance displayed by the Iceni lay in their skilful employment of the war-chariot as a means of attack--in other words, in the efficiency of their powerful and disciplined horses. There was no agriculture among these people, and the importance of the horse which led to the adoption of its figure as a numismatic device was due to the part it played in war. Now these quaintly archaic designs must not be compared with the works of art by which Greek and Roman civilisation was made famous, and laughed aside as contemptible. The true standard of comparison is found in the rude figures in rock inscriptions, and in the ornamentation on the weapons and tools of what we now call savage races. Measured by this standard these designs boast merit, for the artist has succeeded in conveying an impression of the character of his ideal horse. His ideal was clearly one of deep-carcased, wide-buttocked breed, with profuse mane and tail; a horse, in fact, which possessed some of the prominent characteristics of the modern Shire horse. Thus we have pictorial evidence to confirm the written testimony of Julius Cæsar, that twenty centuries ago there existed in Britain a breed of horses having cardinal points in common with those massive animals seen to-day, known as Shires, Clydesdales and Suffolks, and held in the highest esteem.

Parenthetically, it is worth noticing that while a large proportion of the few coins known to be British bear the effigy of a horse, not one of the Roman coins figured in Camden’s _Britannia_ bear such a device; nor do the coins of Saxon origin. To a horse-loving people this proof of the esteem in which their forefathers held the animal is particularly interesting. A large white horse is stated by Mr. Walker, Camden’s collaborator, to have been the ensign of Hengist and Horsa, who landed in Britain in A.D. 449, and this seems to be the only instance in which the figure of a horse was employed as an emblem by others than the Britons.

Mr. Walker, whom Camden introduces as the great expert of the day, remarks, _apropos_ of the coins figured in the _Britannia_, that in ancient times special value attached to white horses; in this respect, however, horses were not singular, white animals of all domesticated species being regarded with peculiar favour, and commonly selected as gifts to Royalty, and as ceremonial tribute when state or tribe was required to acknowledge suzerainty. Mr. Walker asserts also, that only men of the highest rank were permitted to ride white horses on state occasions. That the use of a white steed implied dignity is well shown by the treatment accorded John of France by Edward the Black Prince when he conducted the French King to London. Anxious that the captive should appear not as a prisoner but as a royal guest, John “was clad in royal robes, and was mounted on a white steed, distinguished by its beauty and size; whilst the conqueror, in meaner attire, was carried by his side on a black palfrey.” Richard Berenger, gentleman of the horse to George III., who wrote _The History and Art of Horsemanship_, published 1771, observes that “The King of Naples at this day pays an annual fief of a white horse to the See of Rome as acknowledgment for the kingdom which he holds from the Pope.” Thus we see that the ceremonial value of the white horse was both ancient and lasting. We must not, however, allow this point to detain us.

FROM THE SEVENTH CENTURY TO THE CONQUEST.

The Venerable Bede says that the English did not commonly use saddle horses until about A.D. 631. At this period, which marks the dawn of the Christian era in Britain, preaching monks travelled the country, and it was considered a mark of humility for these early missionaries to travel on foot. Prelates and churchmen of rank were allowed by law to ride, but were counselled to use mares, in order to spare the horses for military purposes. It is to be observed that, although cavalry as a fighting arm was unknown in Britain for the first thousand years of the Christian era, horses of a sturdy and enduring stamp were as essential to the efficiency of troops, as they became at a later date when armoured horsemen formed perhaps the most formidable part of an army. Until they acquired the knowledge from their Norman conquerors, the inhabitants of this country knew nothing of the art of fighting on horseback, but at the same time the “theigns and hus-carles”--picked household troops, generally consisting of big men--employed horses to carry them from place to place, and as these wore chain mail, and had to accomplish long arduous marches over roadless country, a big and powerful stamp of horse was just as necessary to them as it would have been had actual fighting in the saddle been the profession of the riders.

It is conjectured that this early “mounted infantry” system was copied from the Danes, who used horses, acquired locally, in this fashion when they made their descents upon the east coast of England; this, however by the way. The first mention in history of a Master of the Horse occurs in King Alfred’s reign (871-901) His _Hors-Theign_ was named Ecquef. The bare fact that such an office existed is worth mention, as showing the existence of a royal stud in those days. Richard Berenger gives particulars of the curious and interesting laws framed in the tenth century by Howel Dda, the “Good” Welsh Prince. Space considerations forbid their inclusion here; it must suffice to say that these laws prove how great was the importance attached to possession of horses. The first piece of legislation that points to foreign appreciation of English-bred horses occurs in the reign of Athelstan (925-940). That monarch made a law forbidding the export of horses for sale, a circumstance which indicates that the horse trade with the Continent was even then considerable, and that ample use could be found at home for animals of good stamp. King Athelstan had probably interested himself in the improvement of the breed, for in his will, quoted by Berenger, he bequeaths the horses given him by Thurbrand, together with the _white_ horses given him by Liefbrand. These donors were Saxons, so it is only reasonable to suppose that the animals they gave were representative samples of the Saxon breed, which was one of the Great Horse type.

FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE REIGN OF KING JOHN.

For six centuries after the Norman conquest the use of armour was universal. True mail of interlinked rings was generally adopted about the time of the Crusades (1190-94) and its use continued until the fourteenth century; but from about 1300 the practice of protecting the more exposed parts of the body with plates of iron instead of chain mail began to extend, and the character of personal armour gradually changed until it became a complete panoply of plates. The authorities give the period of mixed chain and plate armour as from 1300 to 1410. By the latter date this had disappeared in favour of complete armour of plate, the use of which continued until the beginning of the seventeenth century, growing heavier and stronger in ratio with the increasing efficacy of offensive weapons. We need not follow the decadence of armour through the age when buff coats and jerkins, under “demi-suits of plate,” were in vogue, to its final disappearance far on in the seventeenth century. Our concern lies with those ages during which heavy armour was in use; for this was the long period when the development of the Great Horse was continuously the anxious care of kings and parliaments. The steady increase in the weight of armour is a factor of the first importance in our present investigation; for therein we find the sufficient motive which impelled our ancestors to develop to the utmost the size and strength of the only breed of horse which could carry a man-at-arms. When we find that the weight a horse might be called upon to bear amounted to 4 cwt.--32 stone--at the period when plate armour reached its maximum strength, no further stress need be laid on the power of the animal required. We may find opportunity later on to consider in minuter detail the weight of armour.

At an early date we find the chroniclers speaking of the horse used in warfare as _Dextrarius_ or _Magnus Equus_; later on the English terms “War Horse” or “Great Horse” are used indifferently as the equivalents of the Latin. The history of the period between Henry II.’s accession (1154) until the reign of Elizabeth (1538-1603) shows that it was the constant aim of the Legislature to increase and improve the stock of these horses in England. In Henry II.’s reign several foreign horses were imported (A.D. 1160); but there is nothing to show to what breed these belonged. Maddox’s _History of the Exchequer_ contains mention of disbursements “for the subsistence of the King’s horses that were lately brought from beyond the sea;” but unfortunately we are not informed for what special purpose they were procured. It is more than probable that they were Norman horses suitable for breeding stock to carry men-at-arms; for the first years of Henry’s reign were spent in evolving order from the anarchy which England had endured under his predecessor Stephen--a task which implied forcible measures. The earliest mention of “Cart Horses” that we have found is made by one William Stephanides, a Canterbury monk born in London, who wrote in the year of Henry II.’s accession:--

“Without one of the London City gates is a certain Smoothfield [Smithfield]. Every Friday there is a brave sight of gallant horses to be sold. Many come out of the city to buy or look on--to wit, earls, barons, knights and citizens. There are to be found here _maneged_, or War Horses (_Dextrarii_), of elegant shape, full of fire and giving every proof of a generous and noble temper; likewise Cart Horses, fit for the Dray, or the Plough or the Chariot.”

At this time, therefore, it appears that horses were beginning to replace oxen to some extent, and at all events for farm and draught work; but it would not be safe to conclude that the animals “fit for the Dray or the Plough or the Chariot” were of the Great Horse stamp; probably they more nearly resembled the inferior animals which were used for light cavalry purposes.

THE GREAT HORSE IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.