this period, and even up to the 16th century, necessitated the employment of horses more like our lumbering draught breed than chargers, and these were first obtained from Lombardy. Their excellence is described by Chaucer in the Squire's Tale':

'Great was the press that swarmèd to and fro,

-

To gazen on this horse that standeth so;
For it so high was, and so broad and long,
So well proportionèd for to be strong,
Right as it were a steed of Lombardy :
Therewith so hoarsely and so quick of eye
As it a gentle Polish courser were;
For certes from his tail unto his ear
Nature nor Art could him not amend

In no degree, as all the peopie ween'd.'

But the Flemish horse, the probable progenitor of our heaviest breeds, was at an early period in high repute as a war-horse, and adapted to carry the enormous loads imposed upon him, when pace was not so much an object as strength to bear weight and withstand the shock of an encounter with couched lances. These horses were oftentimes severely tested before final acceptance as fit for the fray; and strong large shoes, with projecting calkins and nail-heads, were not only an indispensable necessity for ordinary duty, but for the more important contests in the field, where a good grip of the turf by the horse's feet was as requisite as a firm seat on its back. This is well illustrated in the case of the redoubtable Châtelain of Waremme, who, in 1325, was the leader of the Awans, a powerful faction in Belgium. He was a man of such gigantic bulk, that, when he was encased in his armour, it required the assistance of two strong esquires to lift him into the saddle. His friends, on the morning of a great

battle with an opposing faction-the Waroux-expressed to him their fear that he was too heavily armed, but De Waremme replied, 'Have no fear, for I swear to you, by God and St George, that since it has required two men to seat me on my good steed Moreal, it shall take at least four to make me get off again.' And this was no idle vaunt, as the events of the day proved.

Another gigantic warrior who fought for the Awans was the Sire de Hemricourt. The strength of limb and massiveness of frame of this man were such that, except his stirrup-leathers broke, it was impossible to unhorse him; and in confirmation of his prowess, the following story is told: Being engaged as one of fifty knights chosen to fight on the side of the King of Sicily, against an equal party for the King of Arragon, a war-horse was sent to him by the king to ride on the day of battle. But Hemricourt, like the champion of Israel in the choice of his weapons, would not trust his steed till he had tried him. He therefore mounted, and, accompanied by some friends and attendants, rode out into the country, and, coming to a large lime-tree, he got off his horse, and made his squires fasten his girths as he directed. He then mounted again, and having had his legs tightly tied to the girths, he seized a thick branch of the tree with his right hand, and drove his spurs into his courser's flanks; but in spite of all its efforts, the horse was unable to get away. Hemricourt, therefore, sent back the animal to the king, saying that it wanted both strength and courage, and was dull to the spur. The king then sent him another, which he submitted to the same test, and the struggle between man and horse was long and violent.

At length, owing to the girths and the poitrail breaking, the steed got away, leaving the knight and his saddle suspended from the tree. This horse the Sire de Hemricourt kept, though an ignominious fate awaited it. When the knight and his associates came to the place appointed for the combat, the Arragonese did not appear, and the King of Sicily, taking advantage of the circumstance, meanly required that the horses should be returned. When the messenger came to De Hemricourt, ‘What,' cried he, has the king, your master, only lent me this carrion to defend his honour at the risk of my life—I who am no subject of his? Is it thus he shows his gratitude? By the eyes of God, he shall have his present back again, but in such a state that no knight shall ever mount him again with honour!' So saying, he had the horse brought out of the stable, and, with his own hands cutting off the mane and tail, desired the groom to lead him away.'

'In those times of war,' writes the old author, Hamericourt, and even ten years after the peace was made, knights and squires of honour rode great horses (d'astriers) or coursers (corseirs) of the greatest value they could procure, and they had very high tourneying saddles without foresaltiers. They were covered with caparisons wrought in embroidery with their armorial blasons. They were armed with breast-plates with good armour of thin iron pieces, and upon the plate they had rich wardcoats bearing their blasons. Each had a helmet upon his

'Miroir des Nobles de la Hesbaye. The Valley of the Meuse, by Dudley Costello.

* De Bellis Leodunsibus, cap. 41.

THE GREAT HORSE.'

433

bacinet with a handsome crest; and several lords, knights, and others had beneath the drapery of their caparisons ringed mail for their horses.' And in a manuscript work entitled the 'Guerre des Awans et des Warons,' recording the party wars among the people of Liege at this time, the horse-shoe is described as 'large fer a cheval ot, a talons moult crochus.'

The 'great horse,' the arms and armour, and the large shoes with high calkins, are well depicted in the German knight painted by Lucas Cranach in the 15th century (fig. 157).

In Scotland, it might be inferred that horses for riding purposes were generally shod, though those for draught were not ordinarily so, if we may judge from an act passed in 1487. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1481, which made the smith who pricked a horse's foot while shoeing it liable to furnish another until the cripple was cured, or if it died, to pay its value.' This, in many respects unjust, law was procured by the Duke of Albany and his brother, the Earl of Mar. It is difficult, if not impossible, to discover how much the unfortunate farrier was likely to lose if the animal he had accidentally lamed happened to die, as the value of horses appears to have fluctuated considerably in Scotland for three centuries. In 1283, for instance, a burgess's steed was valued at one pound; in 1329, a courier's horse was supposed to be worth five shillings; and in 1424, a colt, or horses more than three years old, thirteen shillings and fourpence.

Though horses were always extremely numerous in the Scottish armies, yet they were seldom, if ever, used for agricultural purposes; ploughing being generally performed by oxen.

For a long period, much attention had been paid to breeding good horses. So early as the 13th century, we find Roger Avenel, Lord of Eskdale, possessing a stud in that valley. Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, in preparation for his departure to the Holy Land (A.D. 1247), sold to the Monks of Melrose his stud of brood mares in Lauderdale, for the considerable sum of one hundred marks sterling. Skeen. Parliament 1481, cap. 79.

I