Thus in a single history of Napoleon I. we find two pages of descriptive matter to do with a horse of his called Wagram; two pages about Cyrus, another of his horses; a page about his horse named Emir; half-a-page about his Coco; three pages about Gongalve; two about Coquet; three about Tausis, and so on all the way through, while everything that is said about them could quite easily be condensed into three or four short sentences. Indeed the biographers of the majority of our great military leaders have deemed it necessary to write long and verbose descriptions of the animals that were owned by these historical celebrities, apparently for no other reason than that they did belong to celebrities. When all is said, it is difficult to imagine how or whence they can have obtained such circumstantial information. Granting, however, the truth of all the statements—and one cannot say definitely that any one of them is not true in every detail—was it worth while to tell us that Piers Gaveston owned a grey, or that Blucher remarked upon some uninteresting occasion that he had a horse that used to jib? Yet trivial points of this sort are to be found mentioned in plenty of the so-called popular biographies of our great men. Of more interest it would have been had the biographers succeeded in discovering, and then told us, what sort of bits Napoleon liked to ride his chargers in, and his reason or reasons for preferring them, or whether Blucher ever tried his grey in blinkers. Then the horses described at such weary length might possibly have taught us a lesson or two worth learning. PART III FROM THE STUART PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY CHAPTER I Arrival of the Markham Arabian, the first Arab imported into England—Newmarket village founded by James I.—Decline of the “great horse”—The Royal Studs—James I. organises a race meeting on the frozen River Ouse—Superstitious beliefs concerning horses—James I. meets with a grotesque riding mishap—Prosperity of the Turf—Riding match between Lord Haddington and Lord Sheffield—The Turf vigorously denounced as “an evil likely to imperil the whole country's prosperity” “King James I.'s love of racing,” writes a trustworthy chronicler of the movements at the court of James I. and Charles I. “was due to the importation into England of the first Arab horse ever seen here.” That simple statement records one of the most important incidents that has occurred in the development of the horse in this country, an incident that subsequently proved to be of great moment in connection with the history of Great Britain. For though the assertion has many times been controverted, careful research proves beyond doubt that until the arrival in England of the Markham Arabian—which in after generations was to become so greatly renowned—no Arab of any sort had been brought into this country. [Illustration: STATUE OF COLLEONI BY VERROCCHIO IN VENICE]