298 THE HORSE. 



the stoutness of their bodies At all events you can witness 

 that Diligence has not these failings, which, when absent, an 

 Englishman — evidently, from his article a good horseman — 

 thinks, constitutes the Norman horse the best imaginable horse 

 for a cross upon the English horse of a certain description. 

 Again he says, " They are very gentle and docile ; a kicking or 

 vicious horse is almost unknown there ; any person may pass in 

 security at a fair at the heels of Imndreds.' " 



" My own impressi(ijis being fortitied by such authority from 

 such a source — where we look for little praise of any thing 

 French — and numerous others, verbal and written, I made up 

 my mind to return to France at an early day, and select a stal- 

 lion at least, as an experiment in crossing upon the light mares 

 of New Jersey. My intention was unavoidably delayed until 

 the year 1839, when I went seriously to work to purchase two 

 stallions and two mares with the aid of a veterinary surgeon of 

 Havre, Monsieur St. Marc, to whose knowledge of the various 

 distinct breeds which exist in France, and his untiring zeal in 

 aidnig my enterprise, I take great pleasure in making acknowl- 

 edgments. The animals in due time were procured, but the 

 last which was brought for my decision, although a fine stallion, 

 showed such evident signs of a cross of the English blood — af- 

 terwards acknowledged by the owner — that I i-ejected him, and 

 the packet being about to sail, and preparations being made for 

 the shipment, I was obliged to put the stallion and two mares 

 on board, no time being left to look up another stallion. Here 

 another difficulty arose — I could find no competent groom in 

 Havre to take charge of them on the voyage, and deliver them 

 in JSTew York. I was obliged to make an arrangement with one 

 of the steerage passengers, a German, who had never been to 

 sea before, to attend to them to the best of his ability. As you 

 may suppose, I did not feel very well satisfied with this arrange- 

 ment. I therefore wrote to M. Meurice of Paris, to take charge 

 of my baggage which I had left at his hotel, and the next morn- 

 ing I was on my way to New York in the packet ship Iowa, 

 Captain Peck, where I lived in the round-house on deck, with 

 himself and officers. It was the Iowa's first voyage, and her 

 cabin had not been finished, so great was the fear of the owners, 

 at that time, that their ' occupation was gone ' of carrying cabin 



