The Great Horse; Or, The War Horse

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.

[Illustration: WG]

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.