8 HORSE-EACING IN FRANCE 



memoirs of the Marquis de Fourches, appears in ' Le 

 Sport ' (January 1877), and on it the writer who 

 communicates it makes the following tolerably obvious 

 observation : ' We remark that it was tlien, as it is 

 nowadays, English jockeys who " ran " the horses, and 

 that the rage for betting was already carried to such 

 a pitch that the jockeys were accused, just as they now 

 are, of allowing themselves to be bribed by the oppo- 

 site party.' 



In the next reign, that of Louis XV., during the 

 close of which ' anglomanie,' everybody knows, was 

 all the fashion, we find, as we might expect, a great 

 deal of horse-racing in France, though the King, we 

 are told, was led to forbid the sport in consequence of 

 an incident reported by Horace Walpole, who writes 

 to the Kev. W. Cole (February 28, 1766), ' To-day I 

 have been to the Plaine de Sablons, by the Bois de 

 Boulogne, to see a horse race rid in person by Count 

 Lauraguais and Lord Forbes.' The Count's horse died, 

 and was, of course, said by the French to have been 

 poisoned (? by the English stable people) ; but the 

 Count himself is stated to have ' quacked ' the poor 

 brute. This was the Count Lauraguais who was so 

 well known (and disliked) at Newmarket ; who pur- 

 chased the famous English horse Gimcrack, and raced 

 that celebrated ' crack ' both in England and in France ; 

 who was brother to two of the King's many mistresses, 

 and who was responsible for one of the King's many 

 witticisms. Said the King to Lauraguais, ' What have 

 you been doing all this while in England ? ' ' Sire,' 

 answered Lauraguais, ' I have been learning how to 

 think (pt^nser).' ' Learning how to groom (panser), 

 you mean,' rejoined the King. In the same reign the 

 Duke de Lauzun (a nephew of the Duke de Biron, 



