Queen Elizabeth's reign saw important changes. The application of gunpowder to hand-firearms destroyed the protective value of heavy armour, and with heavy armour gradually went the horse required to carry it. The disappearance of the Great Horse as a charger was very slow, however. In 1685 the Duke of Newcastle published his famous work, _The Manner of Feeding, Dressing and Training of Horses for the Great Saddle, and fitting them for the Service of the Field in time of War_. The book was probably of little use to posterity, for by that time the day of the Great Horse as a charger was very near its close, if not quite at an end. The introduction of coaches was another mark of social progress; and light horses, Arab, Barb and Spanish, were in demand to improve our native breeds. Until 1580, when carriages came into use in England, saddle horses were used by all of whatever degree. Though the side saddle had been introduced in Richard II.'s time, ladies still rode frequently on a pillion behind a gentleman or man-servant. Queen Elizabeth rode on a pillion behind her Master of the Horse when she went in state to St. Paul's; but when hunting or hawking she seems to have ridden her own palfrey. Coaches increased so rapidly towards the end of Elizabeth's reign that a bill was brought into the House of Lords (1601) to check their use. The measure was lost, the Lords directing the Attorney-General to frame a new bill to secure more attention to horse-breeding instead, but if this was done the bill never passed into law. The Queen was an ardent supporter of the Turf and kept racehorses at Greenwich, Waltham, St. Albans, Eaton, Hampton Court, Richmond, Windsor and Charing Cross. Racing had become a popular amusement in the earlier years of Elizabeth's reign, and her participation in the sport was probably due in great measure to her conviction that it must prove beneficial to the breeding industry. The Roodee at Chester appears to have been one of the first public racecourses; the townspeople gave a silver bell to be run for. Racing was well established in Scotland at an earlier date; in 1552, during Edward VI.'s reign, there were races with bells as prizes. There were races at Salisbury in 1585, when the Earl of Cumberland won "the golden bell." In 1599, the Corporation of Carlisle took the sport under its patronage and gave silver bells. According to Comminius, who wrote about the year 1590, racing had grown out of fashion at that period; the old sport of tilting at the quintain had been revived and was apparently a more popular spectacle. It is probable that suspension of public interest in racing was of a very temporary character, for Bishop Hall, in one of his _Satires_, published in 1599, refers to the esteem in which racehorses were then held.