88 HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



Brancas), the Marquis de Conflans, the Comte 

 de Guerchy, the Due de Lauzun, and as spec- 

 tator, if nothing more, the Marquis de Fitz-James 

 (of EngHsh descent from James II., through the 

 Duke of Berwick), not to mention, as a describer 

 and critic, the celebrated Comte de Mirabeau, 

 under the style and title of 'Monsieur' or 'Mr. 

 Grossley.' 



These were all Frenchmen, and, to judge 

 from them, it would seem likely that the French 

 Revolution retarded for some fifty years the 

 progress in horse - racing and horse - breeding 

 which France began at the period under con- 

 sideration, resumed in 1833 after a long check, 

 and from that time to the present has continued 

 by leaps and bounds. An American, Mr. or 

 Colonel Hoomes, ran an English horse called 

 Horns (imported into America, and there re- 

 named Escape, by Precipitate, dam by Wood- 

 pecker) for the Derby of 1801 ; but it was to 

 be eighty years before the American dog was to 

 have his day on the English turf with Iroquois 

 and Foxhall. 



Many other foreign names, both before and 

 during this period, occur among the runners of 



