The accompanying portrait of Sir Walter Hungerford, Knight, of Farley Castle, Heytesbury, is engraved from a picture in the possession of Sir R. Hungerford Pollen, Bart., at Rodbourne, Malmesbury. Sir Walter was the eldest son of Baron Hungerford, who was beheaded July 28th, 1541. Upon the accession of Queen Mary, Walter Hungerford obtained a reversal of the attainder imposed on his father, and recovered the family estates; but the peerage was not revived. Sir Walter retired from political life and court intrigue, and, choosing for his motto, _Amicis Amicissimus_, devoted himself entirely to country pursuits. He became widely known for the excellence of his stud; and the picture here engraved bears the following inscription, “Sir Walter Hungerford, Knight, had in Queene Elizabeth’s tyme, the Second of her Raine, for foure yere together, a baye horse, a blacke greyhounde, a lanerett.[A] This offer was for foure yere together, to all Eynglande, not above his betters, he that shoulde showe the best horse for a man of armes, a greyhounde for a hare, a haucke for the reyver, to wine III hundred poundes, that was a hundery the poundes apese. Also he had a gerfalcon for the herne in Her Majesty’s tyme, that he kept XVIII. yere; and offered the lyke to flye for a hundred pounde, and were refused for all.” This offer of Sir Walter’s gives us the right to assume that the type here represented was the one acknowledged at the date to be that most approved in the English Great Horse; whilst the special function of that horse was, still, to carry “a man of armes.” It can be seen that--though the hair, both of the mane and legs, has been manipulated to suit the fashion--the tail still shows the characteristic abundance. Sir Walter Hungerford’s horse is certainly of the type of Albert Dürer’s Great White Horse, though it shows more evidence of spirit and high action. Instructive particulars concerning the horses of this period are to be found in a curious little black letter volume, entitled, _The Art of Ryding and Breaking Greate Horses_, written by Thomas Blundeville of Newton Flotman in Norfolk, and published in 1566; a second edition of which, “newlie corrected and amended of manie faults escaped in the first printing” was issued in 1580; the latter including chapters on breeding [Illustration: SIR WALTER HUNGERFORD, KNIGHT, OF FARLEY CASTLE, HEYTESBURY.] horses. We may quote from Blundeville’s pages a few passages which throw light upon our subject:-- “Some men have a breed of Great Horses, meete for warre and to serve in the field. Others have ambling horses of a meane stature for to journey and travel by the waie. Some again have a race of swift runners to run for wagers or to gallop the bucke. But plane country men have a breed only for draftes or burden.”