common where there were mares. At Michaelmas tide, the neighbouring magistrates were ordered to 'drive' all forests and commons, and not only destroy such stallions, but all the 'unlikely tits,' whether mares, geldings, or foals, which they might deem not calculated to produce a valuable breed. He moreover ordained, that in every deer-park, in proportion to its size, a certain number of mares, at least thirteen hands high, should be kept; and that all his prelates and nobles, and 'all those whose wives wore velvet bonnets,' should keep stallions for the saddle, at least fifteen hands high.
The 'delicate stratagem' of shoeing a troop of horses with felt on particular occasions, as hinted at by Shakespeare, was tolerably well realized at least half a century before the immortal bard had made any progress in establishing his fame, and from the following incident he may have derived the idea he afterwards introduced into 'King Lear.' In Lord Herbert's 'Life of Henry VIII.,'[1] it is stated that that monarch, while in France, 'having feasted the ladies royally for divers days, departed from Tourney to Lisle (October 13, 1513), whither he was invited by the Lady Margaret, who caused there a juste to be held in an extraordinary manner; the place being a large room raised high from the ground by many steps, and paved with black square stones like marble; while the horses, to prevent sliding, were shod with felt or flocks (the Latin words are feltro sive tomento), after which the ladies danced all night.'
It is supposed that in the Guildhall of London, on the occasion of the marriage of Katharine of Aragon (after-
- ↑ Kennet. History of England, vol. ii. p. 17.
