2»'» S. V. 123., May 8. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



383 



statements put forth by the exhibitors of these strange 

 little beings?" 



Now to the Query, of " any person qualified to 

 do so," I do not venture a reply ; but to enable 

 F. C. B. to pursue his inquiry, I would direct his 

 attention to the following pages of The Athenceum 

 for the year 1853 : — 



Page 824., for Dr. Latham's opinion, which I 

 should think was now modified. 



Pages 860, 861. 966, 967., two letters, in which 

 the historical and geographical value of the nar- 

 rative put forth at that period by the exhibitors is 

 examined. 



Pages 1170, 1171., in a communication made by 

 Dr. Norton Shaw ; in which F. C. B. will read that 

 the Lilliputian Aztecs " were born near the town 

 of Santa Anna, in the state of St. Salvador, of 

 parents one of whom certainly, if not both, was 

 dwarfed, deformed, or imbecile." I would farther 

 refer F. C. B. to The Times of that year, in which 

 many letters appeared on the matter; and, finally, 

 to a tract by Dr. Conoily, Oil the Ethnological 

 Exhibitions of London^ Svo., 1855, in which I 

 have no doubt the subject has been treated by 

 one eminently qualified to do it ample justice. 



Tlie American papers also, in 1853, contributed 

 some interesting information upon these strange 

 little beings, whom I suspect to be of the progeny 

 of Barnum, and to possess intrinsically the value 

 of wooden nutmegs. I write this with humility, 

 as one not duly qualified ; but any of your readers 

 who may wisii to know more of the matter will 

 find these indications useful. S. H. 



THE MERINO FLOCKS OF LOUIS XVI. AND 

 GEORGE III. 



(2"'' S. V. 310.) 



Exactly six years before George III. founded a 

 farm and introduced Merino sheep upon it, at 

 Richmond, Louis XVI. had set him the example 

 by doing exactly the same thing at Rambouillet. 

 Previous to that period the importation of Spanish 

 wool into France cost the latter country annually 

 fifty-five millions of francs. The French King 

 made a solemn request, through his ambassador 

 De la Vauguyon, to be permitted to purchase the 

 living animals instead of their silky wool, which 

 French commercial speculators were then begin- 

 ning to duly appreciate. The pretext assigned 

 was, that his Majesty wished to stock his own 

 pleasant little farm at Rambouillet with samples 

 of one of the glories of Spain. The Spanish mi- 

 nistry, however, detected the commercial object 

 beneath the diplomatic request of the ambassador, 

 and a weary time elapsed before they could be 

 induced to consent to stock the farm at Ram- 

 bouillet with Merinos, the im[)ortant consequences 

 of which they saw clearly enough. At length, in 



June, 1786, a force of forty-two rams, and three 

 hundred and thirty-four ewes, under the guidance 

 of seven Spanish shepherds, set out on its memo- 

 rable march from Segovia to Rambouillet. The 

 Merinos were watched, tended, petted, cared-for, 

 fed, clothed or unclothed, dieted, and physicked 

 on their way with extraordinary and unremitting 

 zeal. On October 12, just four months from the 

 day of starting, the shepherds with their coveted 

 treasures, golden fleeces for France, entered the 

 farm at Rambouillet with the loss of one ram and 

 sixteen ewes. Louis XVI. had scarcely got the 

 flock into promising order when the Republic 

 became masters of the estate and its owner. The 

 Republic killed the King and preserved the sheep; 

 enclosing the latter within prescribed limits, over 

 the gate of which was inscribed the rather satirical 

 inscription " Curat oves et oviumque magistros," 

 which, after its peculiar fashion, was precisely 

 what the Republic most liked to do. 



The successors of Louis XVI. found as much 

 difficulty at first in keeping the flock in health, 

 and in rearing the dropped lambs, as that mo- 

 narch had done. The flock decreased, but De- 

 lorme took the matter In hand, and by mingling 

 the strangers among the purest of the French 

 breed that could be found, he speedily naturalised 

 a breed of Rambouillet Merinos, which excited 

 the admiration of every spectator, — except, of 

 course, the French farmers, who were highly dis- 

 gusted with the novelty. Even this fine breed, 

 however, was neglected during -the worst revo- 

 lutionary troubles ; but far-seeing men had dis- 

 cerned the advantages to be derived from it to 

 the manufactures of France, and a M. Bourgeois 

 de la Bretonniere is spoken of as having accom- 

 plished two wonderful feats at this time, namely, 

 in preserving every head in the flock, and his own 

 also. He succeeded In restoring an almost entire 

 purity of blood. Since the year ix. of the Re- 

 public, when a fresh importation of Merinos was 

 eflected from Spain, the race has been maintained 

 without a cross ; and the results have been re- 

 markable. In 1821 a Rambouillet ewe fetched 

 ordinarily from seven to eight hundred francs, 

 and rams were sold as high as 3770 francs. From 

 that year the Merino wool produced at Ram- 

 bouillet has gradually increased in beauty and in 

 price. The flocks now at Alfort, Aries, Pompa- 

 dour, and Perplgnan, owe their existence to their 

 sires of Rambouillet. 



M. de la Bretonniere was one of the great bene- 

 factors of his country ; but for him the great for- 

 tunes of the great workers in wool would not have 

 been accomplished ; but for him the easy exist- 

 ence of thousands would not have been secured. 

 But France is toujours bienfaisante, and M. de la 

 Bretonniere having toiled in behalf of the best 

 interests of his country for more than thirty 

 years, was turned out of his office in 1821. He 



