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THE ELIZABETHAN PEOPLE
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"Match'd in mouth like bells, |
The Horse.—The horse in Shakespeare's time was a necessary belonging to a man even of modest circumstances. The country roads were then so bad as to be quite unfit for the rapid movement of any sort of wheeled vehicle. People travelled in the saddle; or on the pillion; and most of the transport of goods was done by pack-horse.
The best horses of Tudor times were far different from the thoroughbred of to-day, an animal that derives his best blood from the Arabian breed, which was not seen in England before 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death. Neither the race