BEFORE THE DAYS OF THE SOCIETE D'ENCOURAGEMENT 11 



of Count d'Artois's Biclic (a great winner in France) ; 

 Dulcinea (daughter of Whistlejacket), sold to Count 

 d'Artois ; the Duke de Chartres' Helen, by Conductor 

 (temporarily), and many others. Here, then, were the 

 means of propagating a French edition of the Eaghsh 

 thoroughbred, such as has since been acquired in 

 France ; but the Great Revolution supervened and 

 swamped everything, so that scarcely a trace remains 

 of the sires, the dams, and the progeny which the Count 

 d'Artois and Philippe Egalite had been at so much 

 pains to procure. 



There was very little regard paid in France to 

 horse-racing, to ' pur sang ' or ' demi-sang ' (that is, 

 ' thoroughbred ' or ' half-bred '), during the Terror, the 

 Directory, and the Consulate, though the subject had 

 attracted the attention of the celebrated Mirabeau 

 when he was in England in 1783-5. In 1785 he, in 

 fact, visited Epsom to see the races (as a gentleman of 

 his kidney was likely to do), and under the pseudonym 

 of ' M. Grossley ' he published his views about the 

 English and their ' horsiness.' It may not be every- 

 body who is acquainted with his description, stale as it 

 is to some of us ; and it is, therefore, appended because 

 of the evidence it affords of a French man of the world's 

 mental condition as regards the race horse, the affairs 

 of the Turf, and the sort of monopoly which Englishmen 

 were evidently considered to hold in such matters. The 

 paragraph concerning English ladies and their manner 

 of riding is very amusing, as if French ladies either did 

 not ride at all or were in the habit of riding a cali- 

 fourchon — that is, like a man. Here is the extract : — 



Horse-racing and cock-fighting are carried on here to a 

 pitch of absolute madness, and many gentlemen of fortune ruin 

 themselves by these pleasures. The course at Epsom is in the 



