Thatt oon favell, thatt other Lyard:
Yn this worlde, they hadde no pere; [256]
Dromedary, neither destrere, [257]
Stede, rabyte, ne cammele, [258]
Goeth none so swyfte without fayle
For a thousand pownd of golde,
Ne sholde the one be solde.
And though the rhymist may be thought to have claimed the poetical licence for exaggeration, respecting the value of these two famous steeds, the statement plainly indicates that in his time there were horses very highly prized on account of their swiftness. We do not find indeed, that they were kept for the purpose of racing only, as horses are in the present day; but rather, as I before observed, for hunting and other purposes of a similar nature; and also to be used by heralds and messengers in cases of urgency.
Race-horses were prized on account of their breed, in the time of Elizabeth, as appears from the following observations in one of bishop Hall's Satires.—
——dost thou prize