journeying from one abbey to another, and restricted them to a train of forty or fifty horses![1]
But the Anglo-Saxons, even so early as the time of Bede,[2] in their youth or 'childhood,' appear to have excelled in horse-racing. Hunting on horseback was a favourite pastime, and we are told how long the chases were, and how rugged the paths.[3] An ealdorman's'[4] heriot or claim to that title was the fact of his possessing four horses saddled and four not saddled, with arms and money; while the king's thegn or baron must own a moiety of that number, and the middling thegn or knight, one-fourth.[5]
Horses must have been numerous and looked upon as an important acquisition, even by the Danish invaders; for in the reign of Ethelred (866) these people made one of their incursions into England in numbers never before equalled, and were allowed by that monarch to locate themselves for the winter in East Anglia, So bold were they in their strength, that they levied demands upon the king; and among the many items he was compelled to furnish was a supply of horses, which mounted the greatest part of their army.[6]
Horses also appear to have been very acceptable gifts. For, 926, we read that Hugues, the son of King
- ↑ Velly. Hist, de France, vol. iii. p. 236.
- ↑ Hist. Eccles., lib. v. cap. 6.
- ↑ Life of St Dunstan. Cotton MSS. Cleop. B. 13.
- ↑ The 'ealdorman,' or 'aldormanus' was, among the Anglo-Saxons, originally a dignitary of the highest rank, hereditarily and officially, and nearly synonymous with that of King.
- ↑ Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ.
- ↑ Asser. De Rebus Gestis Æifredi, p. 15. Edit. Oxford, 1772.
