1900] My First Automobile Drive 371 



" yth Sept. — To Vincennes with Wagram where we breakfasted, 

 and saw the horses paraded before President Loubet. A Fourth Prize 

 of 1,000 francs has been awarded to us for Mesaoud, and one of 500 

 francs for Bozra. All the superior prizes, however, have been got hold 

 of by the Sultan, under the name of Muzaffer Pasha, and with the help 

 of his own Inspector of Studs, Fuad Bey, and of one Hector Passega, 

 manager of the Ottoman Horse Show, both of them being judges here, 

 has manipulated the jury and swept the board. There was only one 

 first-class stallion in the Ottoman show, sent from Bagdad, and that 

 has been left out of the prize list. The others are rather ordinary 

 beasts, the First Prize being taken by a small black stallion, whose 

 colour is his chief recommendation. Only one is fit to show at all with 

 ours ; however, it does not much matter, as we have had many ad- 

 mirers of a serious kind, and have already sold one mare, Makbula, 

 to Count Strogonoff for 10,000 francs. 



" To-day is Berthe's wedding-day, and I have written her a sonnet. 

 Giovanni Borghese and Madame de Jaucourt, a friend of the Prince 

 of Wales, have come. After dinner, there were fireworks in the park, 

 and a crowd of people from the neighbourhood. 



"8th Sept. — With Berthe in her new automobile to Paris for the 

 day, going at about fifteen miles an hour. It is certainly an exhilarat- 

 ing experience, quite new to me, and if the machine could be made 

 cheaper (hers cost £800, and an ordinary one £400) would doubtless 

 take the place of horses and carriages. In France it is already much 

 used, but in England, where the roads are neither so broad nor so 

 straight, I doubt whether they will become popular until the mechanism 

 has been simplified and cheapened very considerably. We went a 

 round of the Colonial shows of the popular kind, representing March - 

 and setting fire to African villages, and French generals bombarding 

 the Madagascans. Then to the Petit Palais with its splendid bric-a- 

 brac, and alongside it the Grand Palais, a modern monstrosity forming 

 together a caricature of the nineteenth century. On the one side a huge 

 show of everything hideous the century has produced ; on the other, 

 giving its eclectic fancy for ages gone by. 



" gth Sept. — Paid a last visit to the Horse Show, where we have 

 taken four medals and prizes, 1,000 francs, 800 francs, 600 francs, and 

 500 francs. The printed list calls them recompenses it being not even 

 pretended that the judging is according to merit, the medals being 

 awarded to the exhibitors rather than to the beasts. As a rule those 

 who sent most animals got most prizes. 



" lotli Sept. — Back to Newbuildings, taking Alexandre with me for 

 some English shooting. He is a nice young man, extremely well 

 educated and full of ideas, which he expresses fluently in somewhat 

 imperfect English. ' In France,' he said to-day, talking of duels, 



