HOESE-EACING IN FEANCE 



CHAPTER I. 



BEFOEE THE DAYS OF THE SOCIETE d'eNCOURAGEMENT. 



Desultory horse-racing of course exists in all countries 

 where there are horses to be ridden and men or boys 

 (especially the latter) to ride them ; and the commence- 

 ment of such horse-racing dates, no doubt, from the 

 earliest period at which the horses of those countries 

 submit, either voluntarily or under compulsion, to bear 

 riders upon their backs. Such horse-racing, therefore, 

 is likely to have been practised in France quite as soon 

 as in England, if not sooner. Such horse-racincf, a^ain, 

 though still desultory, vfould, as time went on, inevit- 

 ably lead to a custom of keeping certain horses more 

 especially for that purpose, and, as a natural conse- 

 quence, giving them a special preparation ; and at this 

 stage too there is reason to believe that France arrived 

 as soon as England. At any rate there are, it is said, 

 traces of French horse-racing in 1323 under Charles le 

 Bel, and there is a story current about some ' running 

 horses' (usually, but without unquestionable certainty, 

 taken to mean ' race horses ') sent, four centuries or so 

 before Charles le Bel, by Hugh the Great, father of 



