De Grey, Thomas (15.. – 1656?)

« A publié en 1639, à Londres, The compleat horseman and expert farrier, où il traite, selon l’ordre alphabétique, de l’élevage du cheval et de ses maladies. Ce livre, inspiré surtout des ouvrages de Blundewill, a eu sa troisième édition en 1656, quelques mois après la mort de son auteur. » Neumann (1896)

« Thomas de Grey (or Gray; c.1575-c.1645) was an old man in 1639 when he published The compleat horseman and expert ferrier and he died before the second edition appeared in 1651. The enduring popularity of De Grey’s book can be judged by the fact that three more editions were printed in the 17th century : the third corrected edition in 1656, the fourth and fifth in1670 and 1684. He wrote that he had had his first instruction from Blundeville and Markham and he appears to have meant that he knew them personally. He mentions two conversations with Blundeville on the reasons why horses did not vomit and on the virtues of ascopium, of which Blundeville had learned the composition from an Italian when he was living in Naples. Despite the enthusiastic response to Blundeville’s The Art of Ryding, the first horsemanship manual in English, in 1639 De Grey expressed concern at ‘the neglect of the Horse of the Menage, since the applying of our Breed only to Racing’. He believed that ‘furnishing ourselves with Horses of speed to run away from our enemy’ could only undermine English courage, he writes in his dedication to Hamilton. As interest in the riding house waned in favour of the race track, de Grey was not the only author to express dismay. To those who loved the art of the riding house, a decline of interest seemed to reveal a lack of manly spirit that did not bode well for England. De Grey claimed to have dedicated part of his youth to the investigation of the horse and to have ‘searched many nations for better information’. He had travelled in France and Flanders and ‘many other parts of Christendom’ to see the works of ‘Ferriers and Marshals’. In his text he refers constantly to famous marshals who taught him things. He claimed also to have practiced farriery daily himself and he marks the cures that he has put to the test and found satisfactory with a cross. It is possible that he was the Thomas Grey who was under keeper of palace and gardens at Newmarket who was paid his salary for the previous nine years in 1626. Smith was told that de Grey was Master of the Horse to the third Marquis of Hamilton, who in 1628 himself succeeded Buckingham as Master of the Horse to Charles I. In 1631 Hamilton led 6,000 English and Scottish troops to fight for Gustav Adolph and he afterwards continued to be a champion of the Protestant cause in Europe at the Stuart Court. The use of a portrait of Gustav Adolph as the frontispiece to the editions of de Grey’s book that post-dated the King’s execution also suits an association with Hamilton, as also the dedication of the first edition of De Grey’s book to him. However, there appears to be no reference to him in surviving Hamilton archives. His theme to the king was the perennial shortage of war-horses as a result of the draining of marshes, enclosure of parks and commons and the enthusiasm of gelders for spaying fillies. He wanted their activities suppressed and the statutes for breeding horses enforced. » Dejager (2014)