We obtain an interesting glimpse of the comparative value of the Great and other horses at the end of the thirteenth century from records preserved in Bain’s _Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland_. Among the Documents is a “Roll of the horses of banerets, knights, esquires, and vallets of the K.’s household [King Edward I.] valued in the Scottish war, 26th yere” [of the King’s reign, _i.e._, 1298]. This refers to a lengthy list of the horses which were killed at the battle of Falkirk, and from the items we quote the following:-- “Sir Thomas de Morham a black horse, 24 marks killed in the battle of Falkirk; Sir John Botetorte had a white pied charger value 60 marks killed there; Guy Botetorte his brother had a black hackney value 8 marks killed there.... Sir Henry de Beaumont had a brown bay charger worth 60 marks killed at Falkirk; Sir Eustace de la Hecche had a bay charger with a white hind foot value 100 marks killed.” Numerous “hackneys” figure in the roll; and whereas the maximum value claimed for a hackney, or hack as we should now call it, is 10 marks, the smallest sum set upon a lost charger or Great Horse is 60 marks. FROM THE TIME OF EDWARD III. TO EDWARD IV. Edward III. (1327-1377) added measures dealing with the matter to the Statute Book. This King also, as history records, spent very large sums on horses. We find him indebted to the Count of Hainault to the extent of 25,000 florins for horses; and Mr. Edward Burrows in his Introduction to Lord Ribblesdale’s _The Queen’s Buckhounds_, says:-- “In the long lists which occur in the Exchequer accounts of the wardrobe of numerous classes of horses belonging to the King--coursers, palfreys, trotters, hobbies, genets, hengests and somers--the ‘dextrarii’ or great horses received most attention. Provision was made for 102 of their housings out of 441 ells of canvas and 360 ells of cloth. The boundary between the great cavalry establishments was formed by the Trent, the division to the north of that river having its separate ‘custos’ under the Master of the Horse. The studs were distributed among the King’s manors, such as Windsor, Guildford, Odiham, Woodstock and Waltham. The due proportion of expense necessary was borne by the sheriffs of the various counties. Special provision was made for a tunic of blue and a cape of white Brussels cloth as the attire of ‘John Brocaz,’ styled in these records ‘Custos equorum regis,’ or ‘Gardein de nos _grands chevaux_.’” The great cavalry department of Edward III., Mr. Burrows adds, appears to have been kept at its full war complement for about twenty years, until the power of France was supposed to have been finally broken at Poitiers. Sir John de Brocaz and his son Oliver were employed by the King to buy horses in Gascony before the campaign of Crecy.