In the Saddle

This richly illustrated volume explores the history of the English saddle from Roman times to the 20th century. Based on a 2002 conference at Saddlers’ Hall, it combines research from rare manuscripts, art collections, archaeology, and conservation. The book uncovers the development of astride and side-saddles, details rare surviving examples, and describes how collaboration between riders, archaeologists, and conservators led to the recreation of a Roman saddle. A must-read for riders, historians, curators, and conservators.

There is no need to delve deeply into English history to appreciate the importance of the horse and its saddle. Saddles carried Roman, Saxon and Norman invaders across Britain, sustained the peripatetic English monarch and court, and advanced Tudor trade and Stuart civil war. From the 18th century the English saddle developed rapidly into the world’s leading design and remains pre-eminent today. It is not difficult to find recent books describing the classic English saddle of the 19th and 20th centuries, but none deal with earlier saddles. The authors of the present volume, which is based upon a conference held in 2002 at Saddlers’ Hall in London, explored rare books and manuscripts, private and fine art collections, archaeological fragments, museum stores and family records to piece together this account of the historic antecedents of the English astride saddle and the parallel development of the side-saddle. Few people in history owned saddles as these were cumbersome and expensive objects. Although horse ownership increased after the Middle Ages, saddle survival depended upon a coincidence of care, neglect and good fortune. The conservation of several of these rare survivals has made it possible for their hand manufacture and original decoration to be described and illustrated for the first time. This book describes how collaboration between archaeologists, restorers and experimental riders enabled a Roman saddle to be recreated and ridden. This delightful and beautifully illustrated volume should fascinate riders, archaeologists, conservators, historians and curators alike.

ContributorsForeword by Michael GlassonAcknowledgementsRoman saddles: archaeology and experiment 20 years onCarol van Driel-Murray, Peter Connolly and John DuckhamThe saddle in Anglo-Saxon England and its European backgroundAngela Care EvansThe medieval war saddle and its accessoriesAnn HylandThe saddle of Henry V at Westminster Abbey LibraryLynda HicklingThe conservation of a 16th-century war saddleElise Blouet and Ian BeaumontThe saddle from Unicorn Passage, SouthwarkHazel ForsythConservation of the saddle from Unicorn Passage, SouthwarkRobert PaytonSaddles of the Stuart periodLauren GilmourThe history and development of the side-saddleLindsay Smith,

Contributors

Foreword by Michael Glasson

Acknowledgements

Roman saddles: archaeology and experiment 20 years on

Carol van Driel-Murray, Peter Connolly and John Duckham

The saddle in Anglo-Saxon England and its European background

Angela Care Evans

The medieval war saddle and its accessories

Ann Hyland

The saddle of Henry V at Westminster Abbey Library

Lynda Hickling

The conservation of a 16th-century war saddle

Elise Blouet and Ian Beaumont

The saddle from Unicorn Passage, Southwark

Hazel Forsyth

Conservation of the saddle from Unicorn Passage, Southwark

Robert Payton

Saddles of the Stuart period

Lauren Gilmour

The history and development of the side-saddle

Lindsay Smith

• Edited by Lauren Gilmour

"The editor and authors of this book are to be congratulated on bringing this item of equipment out of the shadows and illustrating that, far from being merely a prosaic seat, the saddle is a key statement on the fundamental nature of the human/horse relationship through time." Antiquity (2005) 982
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The editor and authors of this book are to be congratulated on bringing this item of equipment out of the shadows and illustrating that, far from being merely a prosaic seat, the saddle is a key statement on the fundamental nature of the human/horse relationship through time.

—