HACKNEY AND PALFREY.

North Otago Times, 3 September 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

HACKNEY AND PALFREY.

The term "hackney" was brought into use in England in the twelfth century by the Normans, who described as a " hacqucnee " the active and useful saddle horse which was ridden by the knights and other men of military rank on the march and at such times as they did not wear their heavy armour, In Bain's "Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland " there is a curious and interesting record of the " horses of the bannerets, knights, esquires, and vallets of' the king's household " which were killed at the battle of Falkirk in the year 1298, the value of such horses being paid to the owners out of the public purse. The list of horses killed and paid for includes a great many Hackneys. It is interesting to trace the chsnge of meaning which the term Hatfmey has undergone, Sir Walter Gilbey, in his work on " The Harness Horse" says: " The Hackney being a saddle horse, men who hired out horses for journeys were called Hackney men." Thus, in process of time, the name came to signify a hired horse, and we have evidence that the "Hackney man," or jobmaster, kept an exceedingly good stamp of animal. The word once having come to mean a horse that could be hired, by one of those curious perversions of language • brought about by popular usage, it was applied to means of conveyance other than horses that could be hired, and thus in 1605 we hear for the first time of "hackney" coaches, and in 1634 of " hackney " chairs. ' " Hackney " and " palfrey " were terms applied to the same stamp of animal-namcly, saddle-horses of the better class, the only difference-at one period at least of historv-being that the Hackney was allowed to retain its natural pace, the trot, whilo the palfrey was very generally taught to amble, or run, that gait being easier to the rider on a loner journey. From very early times the eastern counties have been famed for .the Hackneys bred there. Four hundred years ago Dame Margaret Paston wrote to her husband : "There be three trotters boyeht for you at St ( •. Faith's, fair, right fair horses-GodV save them-and they be well kcepcd'Jf (conditioned). It is thought that ' Norfolk, Suffolk, and Yorkshire owe "'■* something of the merit of their trot- , ting horses to early importations of Norwegian stock by the Danes. Mr. 'Ktiren says " the fact that the trotting horse was in the eighteenth century found most plentifully in those' districts of the kingdom where Danish settlers had left indelible marks' of occupation and habitation, warrants the assumption that to Norse stock they in great measure owe their characteristic action."