Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/337

 and Sentiments. 2^7 difplay of cavalry. It appears that at this early period the beft horfes were imported into England from Bordeaux. It may be mentioned, in palling, that the male horfe only was ridden by knights or people of any dilVnidion, and that to ride a mare was always looked upon as a degradation. This feems to have been an old Teutonic prejudice, perhaps a religious fuperftition. The kinds of horfes moft commonly mentioned in the feudal ages are named in French (which was the language of feudalifm), the palefroi, or palfrey, the dcxtricr, the roncin, and the fommier. llie dcj trier, or dejtrier, was the ordinary war-horfe ; the roncin belonged efpecially to the fervantsand attendants 3 and the Towwitr carried the luggage. Ladies efpecially rode the palfrey. The Orkney iflands appear to have been celebrated for their dcxtriers. The Ille of Man feems alfo to have pro- duced a celebrated breed of horfes. Brittany was celebrated for its palfreys. The haqiienee, or hackney, of the middle ages, appears to have been efpecially referved for females. England feems not to have been cele- brated for its horfes in the middle ages, and the horfes of value polTeHed by the Englilh kings and great nobles were, in almoft all cafes, imported from the Continent. The ordinary prices of horfes in England in the reign of Edward I., was from one to ten pounds, but choice animals were valued much higher. When St. Louis returned to France from his captivity, the abbot of Cluny prefented to the king and the queen each a horfe, the value of which JoinviUe eliimates at five hundred livres, equivalent to about four hundred pounds of our prefent Englilh money. Thefe muft have been horfes which polfeHed fome very extraordinary qualities, as the price is quite out of proportion to that of other horfes at the fame period. In the charters publilhed by M. Guerard, horfes are valued at forty fols, and at three pounds at various periods during the eleventh century. In 1203, two roncins are valued at thirty fols each, another at forty, two at fifty each, and two at fixtyj the roncin of an arbalefter at fixty fols; :x fommier, or baggage-horfe, at forty fols; and three horfes, of which the kind is not fpecified, at fix pounds each, Thefe appear to have been the ordinary ])rices at that period ; for, though prices of horfes are mentioned as high as thirty-four, thirty-five, and forty pounds.