22 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



flesh ; but tlie blood of Egalite makes that assertion 

 doubtful. 



As for the Duke d'Orleans, the popular Prince, whose 

 promise was such that, had he lived, he might have 

 preserved the throne of France to his dynasty in 1848, 

 and whose premature death brought to mind the touch- 

 ing lines of Virgil with the hackneyed ' Tu Marcellus 

 eris,' he was undoubtedly a sportsman every inch. And, 

 as if he had been a second Hippolytus, the horses 

 he loved, it will be remembered, were his destruction ; 

 they ran away with his carriage, from which he leapt, 

 receiving fatal injuries, in 1842. Then the newly es- 

 tablished Jockey Club mourned its first and its greatest 

 loss by death, and the French Turf, in its infancy, lost 

 the best, if not the most enthusiastic, of its early 

 ' fathers.' But he had already done wonders for the 

 new-fledged institution. It is little to say that through 

 his influence the French Jockey Club obtained leave to 

 hold meetings regularly in the Champ de Mars ; for the 

 course there was about as bad as any could be, except, 

 perhaps, that of Satory- Versailles, which is described as 

 sheer cruelty to men and horses. The Duke d'Orleans 

 did far more ; he brought about the formation (in 1834) 

 of the racecourse on the Duke d'Aumale's property at 

 Chantilly (the Duke d'Aumale being but twelve years old), 

 which was the best course in France (notwithstanding 

 some drawbacks) until the creation of Longchamps (in 

 1856-57), and still remains the best of all in certain 

 respects, especially picturesqueness and ability to with- 

 stand the effects of rain. At Chantilly was run the first 

 Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) in 183fi, and the 

 first Prix de Diane (or French Oaks) in 1843, and there 

 those two races have been run ever since (except the 

 memorable year 1 848, when they were run at Versailles) 



