The inference naturally would be that these particular horses were partial to the men who treated them humanely and disliked those who ill-treated them. If the early historians are to be believed, however, the horses' likes and dislikes for various persons were irrespective of the way they had been treated by such persons. Particularly does this appear to have been the case with Roan Barbary, for we are assured that all who had charge of him, or to do with him in any way, treated him invariably “with kindness and great cordiality” (!) the king having issued strict orders that they should. In the British Museum there may be seen to-day a French metrical history of the deposition of Richard II. which informs us that the king owned “many a good horse of foreign breed.” * * * * * Mr J. P. Hore, the well-known authority, is of opinion that “the thoroughbred English horse was characteristic of the nation” in the reign of Richard II., and adds that “horses were then recognised and their praises sung.” There is no doubt that between 1377 and 1399 the interest taken in horses in this country by persons of almost every class developed rapidly. The agricultural community in particular had by then begun to turn its attention seriously to the rearing of a better stamp of horse, and we know that Chaucer, who lived from 1328 to 1400, tells us that his famous monk had “full many a daintie horse in stable.” Chaucer's interesting references to the various sorts of horse in use in the fourteenth century are numerous, and they serve to show that persons of different rank rode horses of different stamp. Thus on that fine April morning when the motley party of pilgrims set out from the Bell at Southwark upon their hasty journey we find the Knight mounted on a big and powerful horse—naturally a knight wearing armour needed such a beast to carry him—whereas the steed ridden by “the Clerk of Oxenford” was “as leane as any rake.” The Wife of Bath, on the other hand, with her “great spurs,” sat astride an “amblere”; the Ploughman rode “a mere”; the Shipman from Dartmouth rode “a rouncy as he couth”; while the Reeve “sat upon a fit good stot that was all pomely gray, and highte Scot.” In the “Knight's Tale” we find the King of Ynde riding “a horse of baye.” Apparently at this time greater attention was paid to the breeding and rearing of horses for war than for hunting or for “speed competitions” or any other purpose. Evidently King Richard had become more fully aware of the possibilities that existed for the use of powerful cavalry than any of his predecessors had done. Indeed he is said to have expressed upon one occasion a strong wish that his army might one day consist of cavalry only.