Preface

Summary

This book is not the one I had in my mind when I set out to write a book on William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire, and his horses. At the time, I intended it to serve as a case study of the relationship between an aristocrat and his horses, one that would be narrowly focused on equine pursuits. Of course, the proposal emphasised the centrality of horses to Cavendish and his peers, but, blinkered, I did not fully consider the wider implications inherent in that statement. So if initially I did not see it coming, once I started to write I found myself getting involved in a range of subjects that seemed relevant to my central theme of a man and his horses. Chapters on provincial and metropolitan visits expanded to incorporate information on the social, political, legal and administrative activities of Cavendish and his peers to the extent that they had to become chapters in their own right. In its final incarnation the book even has a chapter on entertainment and pastimes, admittedly some of which have a definite equine feel about them and would have surfaced in the narrowly conceived book anyway.

As the book mutated, the title had to change to keep pace with the shifting ground it was covering. In this respect the title, which was suggested by one of the referees, namely, Horses and the Aristocratic Lifestyle, accurately reflects the construction of the book. It contains ten chapters, neatly divided in the middle, with the first half dealing with equine themes and the second one covering lifestyle subjects. But this is not a forced coupling but rather a symbiotic one with cross-currents flowing freely between the two halves. Just as I found it impossible to write a book on an aristocrat and his horses without discussing his lifestyle, it would be equally impossible to write a book on the aristocratic lifestyle without highlighting the centrality of horses to it. This is particularly true of the period covered by the book, which focuses on the turn of the sixteenth century (1597– 1623), the years covered by the exant accounts. It encompassed developments in agriculture, industry and trade; improvements in internal communication; the growth of a social season, especially in London; and the benefits of peace brought about by the ending of the threat from Spain and the effect of dynastic union with Scotland, even if Ireland remained an open wound. The role of horses was crucial to all these developments.