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SOURCE OF PRESENT TH0R0UGH3RED First English Breeding for Speed Began in tho Eleventh Century by Normans. The breed of race horses is descended of stallions bought from the Medes,- Persians and Arabians, which they give mares to suit in size, strength and wind; in all which we have excelled all other countries. Roger de Bele"sme, created Earl cf Salisbury by. William the Conqueror 1070, is the first upon record that introduced a Spanish stallion into his seat at Powis-Land, from which that part of Wales was celebrated for a swift and generous breed of horses. Geraldus Cambrensis, who lived in the reign of Henry II. 1155, takes notice of it, and Michael Dravion. contemporary with Shakespeare 1585, sings their excellence in the sixth part of his Polyolbion. This breed was destined to mount the nobility and knights for feats of activity in the contests in the tilt-yard. From these sprung, to speak the language of the times, the flower of coursers, whose excellent form added charms to the rider, and whose activity and managed dexterity gained him the palm in the fipld of romantic honor. Afterward the gentlemen began, among other feats of sporting, to try the fleetness of their horses against one another, but rode themselves, without measuring the horses, or Weighing the burdens they were to carry; other methods being found out afterward by experience to be necessary in fair matches. That this was the chief object in cultivating the mixed breeds seems to be probable till James the Firsts reign 15S0, when we find horse races at Croydon in the south and at Gatherly Common, a little north of Richmond in Yorkshire, which were then famous for horse courses; but how long they had been so before we are not informed. James Markham in 1579 on the management of horses mentions running horses, but these were only designed for matches between one gentleman and another at that time. Yet this diversion being so much esteemed subscriptions were at last made toward purchasing a piece of plate, or making fi purse, as a prize to the winning horse. Thus gentlemen went on breeding their horses so fine for the sake of shape and speed only without considering that those animals being only second, third or fourth rates in speed were then quite useless, until the reign of Queen Anno 1090, when a public-spirited gentleman, observing this inconvenience, left thirteen plates, or purses, to be run for at such places as the crown should appoint, whence they are called the Kings or Queens plate or guineas, upon condition that each horse, mare or gelding should carry 108 pounds weiglJt, the best of three heats over a four-mile course. By this method a stronger and more useful breed were soon raised, and if tho horse did not win the Guineas he was yet strong enough to make a good hunter. By these crossings, as the jockeys term it, we have horses of full blood, three-quarters blood or half-bred cattle, suitable to carrv any burden, by which means the English breed of horses are allowed to be the best, and are greatly esteemed by foreigners. Sporting Magazine.
