HISTORY

OF THE

BRITISH TURF.

CHAPTER I.

Introduction-Early history of the Horse.

BUFFON observes of the horse, that it ranks in the first scale of excellence of all animals coming under the denomination of cattle,-possessing a grandeur of stature, an elegance and proportion of parts, superior to other quadrupeds. Endowed with a form and sagacity eminently adapted for the use of man, the domestication of the horse forms one of the most valuable acquisitions made from the animal kingdom. The chisel and the pencil of the artist have, from the remotest antiquity, combined with the pen of the poet, to embody his beauties and attributes, to

VOL. I.

B

adorn their works; and we cannot do better than give the following pre-eminently poetical description of this noble animal in his comparatively wild state, as an introduction to the history of his highest cultivated excellence. The earliest passage we meet with in the works of the writers of antiquity, in which the horse is brought forward with the fire of inspired genius, we find in the 39th chapter, and from the 19th to the 25th verse, of the Book of Job. It is in the following words :

"Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder ?*

"Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is terrible.

* We find the following note in Berenger's Horsemanship, vol.i. p. 12. on the use of the word thunder in the above quotation.

"In this enumeration of the beauties and noble qualities of the horse, it should be remarked that the English translators make Job say that the animal's neck is clothed with thunder, an expression as false as it is absurd. The true rendering of this passage is, that his neck is clothed with a mane; thus Bochart, Le Clerc Patrick, and other commentators translate it. Bochart says that the word which in Hebrew signifies thunder is synonimous for the mane of a horse; but this being so, it is astonishing that the translator should have set aside the just and natural signification, and have chosen to cover the horse's neck with thunder instead of a mane; nor is it less amazing that this nonsense should have been extolled by the author of the Guardian, [Guardian, vol. ii. p. 26.] and others as an instance of the sublime."

"He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet the armed men.

He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted, neither turneth he back from the sword.

"The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.

"He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage, neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.

"He saith among the trumpets Ha, Ha, and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting."

*

Again Homer, in the 6th book of the Iliad,

has the following beautiful simile:

The wanton courser thus with reins unbound,
Breaks from his stall, and beats the trembling ground;
Pampered and proud he seeks the wonted tides,

* The Rev. Dr. Scot gives the following translation of the above passage, which he considers incorrectly rendered in the common version:

"Hast thou given spirit to the horse? Hast thou clothed his neck with a mane? Canst thou make him bound as a locust? The majesty of his snorting is terrible. He paweth in the valleys and exulteth; he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear and trembleth not; nor turneth he back from the sword. Against him rattleth the quiver, the glittering spear and shield. He devours the ground with fierceness and rage, and is impatient when the trumpet soundeth. He uttereth among the trumpets Ha! Ha! He smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting."

And laves in height of blood his shining sides;
His head, now freed, he tosses to the skies,
His mane dishevel'd o'er his shoulders flies;
He snuffs the females in the distant plain,
And springs exulting to his fields again."

And Virgil, in the 6th book of the Æneid, nearly equals his great master in the following lines :

So joys the steed when bursting from his bounds,
And flies impetuous o'er opposing mounds;
Seeks female herds, or in the well-known flood
Bathes his bright sides to cool his fiery blood.
He neighs, and rears his lofty neck; behind
His spreading mane, on either side reclined,
Luxuriant flows and wantons in the wind."

Many of the early writers on the horse have entered into much controversy and research, for the purpose of demonstrating the exact period when this noblest and most useful auxiliary to man among animals, first became subject to his dominion; but always without success. The impossibility of penetrating the obscurity which envelopes the earliest ages of mankind must ever prevent us from arriving at accurate data on that point. But with the aid of those authorities we possess, we may attain all that is useful, as well as much that is curious, in the

BRITISH TURF.

early history of the subjugation of the horse to the uses of man.

5

Created, as the sacred volume informs us, before man, we have little doubt he inhabited, with his future master, the fertile nursery assigned him by the Almighty in the East; where, being brought in almost constant contact with each other, it is highly probable that but a brief period elapsed before man availed himself of the services of an animal so obviously fitted by nature to his use.

The earliest mention of horsemanship on record, we find in the Bible, where, in the 50th chapter of Genesis, verse 9, horsemen are named as forming part of the funeral procession of Jacob; and again, in the 14th chapter of Exodus, verse 9, horsemen are enumerated among the troops with which Pharoah chased the Israelites on their departure from Egypt.

Homer, who is generally supposed to have been cotemporary with Joshua, frequently dwells on the beauty of the horses which drew the chariots of his heroes, although it may be remarked, as a singular fact, that he makes but two references to horse riding in his great poem the Iliad, and but one in the Odyssey. The first in the Iliad (K 513) is where Ulysses and Diomede, having stolen the horses of Rhesus without the