370 The Horse Show at Vincennes [1900 



" lyth July. — It is certain now that the Europeans in Pekin have all 

 been massacred. [Nevertheless it turned out that the whole story was 

 a fable invented by the halfpenny press.] 



" 31st July. — The King of Italy has been assassinated. The wonder 

 is that he has not long ago fallen a victim to his subjects whom he has 

 led into miserable poverty and ground down with taxes for his political 

 ambition. He wanted to be an Emperor like the rest of them, Emperor 

 of Ethiopia, and this is the end. 



" 13^ Aug. — Started on my summer driving tour, going by Old- 

 house, where I had a long talk with Auberon Herbert about the great 

 affairs of the world. His son Bron has gone as correspondent to the 

 ' Times ' in South Africa, not much to Auberon's contentment. Then 

 on to St. Giles', where I dined and slept at the Shaftesburys'. The next 

 day by Rushmore to Clouds, where I stayed a week or more. 



" 4th Sept. — Arrived by the night train in Paris, and drove straight 

 to the Horse Show at Vincennes, where I am exhibiting a number of 

 Arabs, but the feeling just now is too strong against everything Eng- 

 lish for much hope of our getting prizes. The judges are French mil- 

 itary men, of the same class that sat in court-martial on Dreyfus. Also 

 the Sultan has a number of horses at the show which he has entered in 

 the names of various Turkish Generals, so as to elude the rule making 

 Government studs ineligible for competition. There were some saises 

 looking after them, whom I cross-questioned in Arabic, and they let 

 out to me that all really belonged to the Sultan. The handsomest Arab 

 mare is one sent by Prince Sanguscko, a very great beauty with a flea- 

 bitten coat. Then on to Gros Bois. 



" $th Sept. — Gros Bois. There is nobody here but the family. 

 Alexandre, the boy, is a good talker and a good fellow, very superior 

 in intelligence to most young fellows of his age, which is seventeen, 

 while the two girls are charming and begin to make a feature in the 

 conversation and amusement for the house. 



" 6th Sept. — To Paris to see the International Exhibition, a fatiguing 

 affair. I went through the Pavilions Etrangers, of which incomparably 

 the best is the Spanish, most of the others are cluttered up with the 

 rubbish of modern manufactures, and even the English Pavilion, 

 which represents a Victorian Gothic country-house, has a certain vul- 

 garity, but here in the Spanish section there is an incomparable dignity. 

 By a stroke of genius worthy of her days of splendour, Spain, ignoring 

 altogether the nineteenth century, even to its bric-a-brac, shows us a 

 mere empty house with tapestries on the walls, tapestries the most 

 magnificent ever shown, and in two small glass cases in the centre of 

 the room, the armour of Charles V, and the dress worn by Boabdil el 

 Chico — absolutely nothing more. The beautiful Morris tapestries in 

 the English House looked tawdry after these. 



