H.
Docking Horses' Tails.—I should be glad to learn when the practice of docking horses' tails commenced in England, or in any country of Europe, and what was the immediate cause of this amputation? I cannot trace in the plates of Froissart, or others of a later date, any indication of this practice, and in them there are no tails lopped of their fair proportions.
What other nations besides the English have ever docked their horses' tails; and where is any account to be found of their reasons for so doing?
If any of your correspondents will answer these Queries, I shall feel obliged.
Tail.
St. Albans, William, Abbot of.—Archbishop Morton addressed a monition in 1490 to William, Abbot of St. Albans. It is to be found in Wilkin's Concilia, iii. 632., and is extracted from Archbishop Morton's Register, fol. 22. b. Now, in Tanner's Notitia, and in Dugdale's Monasticon, it is stated that William Wallingford, Abbot of St. Albans, died in 1484; and that the chair was vacant until 1492, when Thomas Ramryge was elected abbot. Archbishop Morton's original letter is, I believe, to be seen in the register at Lambeth, and its date is distinctly 1490. This date, moreover, agrees with the Excerpta of Dr. Ducarel in the British Museum.
Can any of your readers solve this difficulty for me, as I am anxious to know immediately whether I may safely identify "William," the notorious evil-liver of Morton's monition, with "Wallington," who bears a respectable character in Dugdale's Monasticon.
L. H. J. Tonna.
Jeremy Taylor on Friendship.—
"I am grieved at every sad story I hear. I am troubled when I hear of a pretty bride murdered in her bride-chamber by an ambitious and enraged rival," &c.—Jeremy Taylor on Friendship, p. 37, fol. Lond. 1674.