Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/336

 3i6 HiJIory of Domejiic Manners The horfe was, after a man's own limbs, his primary agent of loco- motion. Perhaps no animal is fo intimately mixed up with the hiflory of mankind as the horfe — certainly none more fo. Our Anglo-Saxon fore- fathers travelled much on foot, and, as far as M'e know, the great impor- tance in which the horfe was held in the middle ages in this part of the No. 214. Lady and Cart. world, began with feudalifm, and the befl: and mofl: celebrated breed of horfes in Europe, from the earlieft ages of chivalry, was brought from the Eaft. The heroes of early romance and poetry are generally mounted on Arab fteeds, and thefe have often the additional merit of having been won by conquell: from the Saracens. In the thirteenth century tht?y were obtained from Turkey and Greece ; and at a later period from Barbary. France, alio, had its native breed, which enjoyed a high repu- tation for many valuable qualities, and efpeci ally for its fiercenefs in war; Gafcony, and, on the other fide of the Spanifli frontier, Caftile and Aquitaine, were much celebrated for their horfes. The Gafcons prided themfelves much on their horfes, and they dilplayed this pride fometimes in a very fingular manner. In J 173, Raymond de Venous, count of Touloufe, held a grand cour pleuiere, and, as a diiplay of oftentation, caufed thirty of his horfes to be burnt in prefence of the alfembly. It was a fine example of the barbarity of feudalifm. At the provincial lynod of Auch, held in 1303, it was ordered that archdeacons, when they made their diocefan circuits, lliould not go with more than five horfes, which Ihows that the Gafcon clergy were in the habit of making a great difplay