216 



street, without riders; and this folly is attended with a degree of cru- 

 elty ; bats stuck full with sharp goads, being attached to the rump of 

 the animals, which suffer constant strokes of the goad from their mo- 

 tion. The noblesse of France, before the revolution, shewed a strong 

 inclination to introduce the sports of the turf into their country, and 

 to raise a breed of Race-horses, from English stock; something of this 

 kind has occasionally appeared since, but without any sort of demon, 

 stration that the subject is at all understood there. Jockeyship is not 

 among the sciences to be acquired in Veterinary schools and colleges. 

 Nor do the French seem, hitherto, notwithstanding the great encou- 

 ragement held out by their government, to have worked any consider- 

 able improvement in their breed of Horses, since we are informed, that, 

 at a late prize-show, few or none could be found, out of a great number 

 of colts, worthy of a premium. It remains to be seen, Avhat effect may 

 be produced by the revival of French Horse-coursing, over the Champ 

 de Mars, where fiftj'-pound plates were to be run for, in October of the 

 present year, 1807. At any rate, the Parisian youth of fashion seem 

 to evince such a taste, by exercising their nags twice a day, in light 

 saddles, aVA7iglaise, single bridles of the most simple form, and in Ash- 

 ley's boots, who is not only employed by the Emperor, but also the 

 crack-boot maker of Paris. Let us hail this symptom of returning pas- 

 sion in the French, for a British sport. 



With respect to that peculiar species of the Horse, which is the sub- 

 ject of the present section, the thorough-bred racer, he is to be found 

 indigenous in no part of the European continent, excepting the British 

 islands ; and with respect to the famous breeds of Asia and Africa, they 

 can scarcely, in their original state, be deemed racers, although their 

 immediate descendants, nurtured in a foreign land, prove such. 



The fieople of this countrj^ in general, it has been observed, do not 

 possess much information respecting the business of the turf, in fact, few 

 persons attend the Newmarket meetings, excepting the sporting gentle- 

 men, and their attendants ; it may be therefore necessary to state the 

 following parti(;ulars, for the use of the curious, and of foreigners, who, 

 on the return of that greatest of all blessings, Peace, may honour these 

 pages with their attention, and the British Turf with their presence. 



A very 



