Yet in spite of all that has been said and written about John Markham's stallion, the horse was not, according to that excellent judge of horses, the Duke of Newcastle, the class of animal that any man would have chosen to breed from for looks, for, in the duke's own words, “He [the Markham Arabian] was a bay, but a little horse, and no rarity for shape; for I have seen many English horses far finer.... Mr Markham sold him to the King for five hundred pounds (sic), and being trained up for a course, when he came to run, every horse beat him.”
I believe I am right in saying that the identity of John Markham has never been positively traced, also that the consensus of opinion inclines to the belief that he was the father of the famous author, Gervase Markham, who for many years held the post of keeper of Clipston Shraggs Walk, in Sherwood Forest.
Among the works of Gervase Markham is a volume entitled “Cavalarice, or the English Horseman,” in which many grotesque and unintentionally humorous passages are to be found.
Each of the eight books which together go to make up this work is dedicated to some distinguished personage, of whom James I. is one, and Henry, Prince of Wales, another.
To James I. we are probably indebted for the existence of the town of Newmarket, for it is certain that he not only inaugurated the construction of the village, but in addition brought his influence to bear upon its development, and that he greatly helped to stimulate the interest which the people of Newmarket and the neighbourhood already took in the breeding and training of running horses. It may be partly for this reason that Newmarket is still so often spoken of as “the royal village.”
Notwithstanding the disappointment the Markham Arabian must have afforded James I., we read that the king offered a silver bell of considerable value to be run for at Newmarket, that the entries for the race were numerous, and that “the event gave rise to much speculation, wagering and public interest.”
It was, indeed, in this connection that Ben Jonson wrote so caustically, or rather satirically, in his famous “Alchemist,” and alluded incidentally to “the rules to cheat at horse races.”
Elsewhere Jonson describes, and mentions by name, some of the race horses that probably were well known on the Turf at about that period.
Seeing how keen the interest was that James I. took almost from boyhood in all that related to the Turf, and to the breeding of race horses, we can hardly be surprised to hear that during his reign the general interest in the breeding of “great horses,” which had been so marked a feature of Henry VIII.'s reign, also of Elizabeth's reign, at one time threatened to die out.
Robert Reyce speaks of this in his “Breviary of Suffolk,” a book which he dedicated to Sir Robert Crane, of Chiltern, and elsewhere allusions are to be found to the decay of interest in the breeding of “great horses.”