19 



CHAPTER II. 



THE FRENCH JOCKEY CLUB. 



The true fathers of the French Turf (as it now is) were 

 the original members of the French Jockey Ckib, or 

 rather the original members of that body which formed 

 the first Eace Committee of the Societe d'Encourage- 

 ment, founded in 1833. There had for some time 

 previously been that ' something in the air ' which is 

 always abroad when a new institution is about to come 

 into existence ; but it was in 1833 that the ' something ' 

 took definite shape and presented itself in the form of 

 an aristocratic, influential, wealthy, and powerful as- 

 sociation. 



The origin of the Association or Club seems to have 

 been on this wise : Before the year 1833 there had 

 existed at Tivoli, Rue Blanche, Paris, ' an English 

 Jockey Club and Pigeon-shooting Club,' the founder 

 and secretary, and apparently proprietor, whereof was 

 a Mr, Thomas Bryon, an Englishman. Among the 

 eighteen members in 1830 there were four Englishmen, 

 including the very eccentric Lord Henry Seymour, a 

 native and resident of Paris, who, though he is said to 

 have never set foot in England, was of English descent 

 in the male line (being a son of the third Marquis of 

 Hertford and of that Maria Fagniani whom it is well 

 known that both George Selwyn and the ' old Q.' Duke 



