BEFORE THE DAYS OF THE SOCIETE D'ENCOUliAGEMENT 9 



whose descendant, Duke de Gontaiit-Biron, was pre- 

 sident of the French Jockey Club from 1851 to 1883) 

 ran horses in Enghxnd (Taster, by Sweepstakes, and 

 Patrician, by Matchem, for instance, in 1773). In this 

 reign too we find from Jesse's ' Selwyn ' tiiat tlie 

 Marqnis de Fitzjames went with Guerchy (the French 

 ambassador) and Lord March (' old Q.') to Newmari^et, 

 wiiicli he ' hked, and everybody hked him.' In fact, 

 Newmarket about this time was positively infested by 

 Frenchmen, insomuch that Lord Carlisle writes to 

 Selwyn in 1768, 'I pity my Newmarket friends, who 

 are to be bored by those Frenchmen ; ' and, according 

 to Horace Walpole, the celebrated sportsman Mr. Hugo 

 Meynell took it so much to heart that he said with 

 grim humour ' he wished the peace were all over and 

 we were comfortably at war again.' 



It was in the reign of Louis XVI., however, just 

 before ' the deluge,' that it seemed as if the French were 

 about to settle down to their stride and commence 

 their race with us both in breedino- and runnin^j the 

 thoroughbred ; but circumstances beyond the control 

 of any Jockey Club, French or English, postponed this 

 pleasant prospect for about half a century. In 1783 

 horse-racing was in full blast at Vincennes and Fontaine- 

 bleau ; ' old Q.' and others of our leading racing men 

 would send their horses (carrying extra weight) to run 

 against the Count d'Artois (afterwards Charles X.), 

 the Duke de Chartres (afterwards the Duke d'Orleans, 

 known as Philippe Egalite), the Marquis de Confians 

 (godfather to the Confians stakes at Brighton, then 

 called Brighthelmstone, in 1785), the Duke de Lauzun, 

 the Duke de Fitzjames, and other French notabilities, 

 of wdiom several, including Philippe Egalite (wlio as 

 Duke d'Orleans appears to have been an hon. member 



