THE FRENCH JOCKEY CLUB 27 



the sire of Poetess, who was the dam of the celebrated 

 Hervine and of the great Monarque, who was the sire 

 of so many ' ilhistrations,' including the fabulous 

 Gladiateur. It is due to the Administration des Haras 

 to mention that to them the French owed the purchase 

 of Gladiator at a cost of 62,500 francs (2,500/.) ; but it 

 was a private individual — Lord Henry Seymour — ^who 

 purchased Eoyal Oak. Under the House of Orleans, then, 

 it has been made plain that the Government had begun 

 to launch out, to aim high, to bid for winners of our great 

 races, and, what is more, to show judgment in buying 

 at good prices well bred horses that had distinguished 

 themselves, though they had not won our great I'aces. 



Let us now pass on to the other ' foundation mem- 

 bers ' of the French Jockey Club, or of the Eace 

 Committee thereof, giving the first place, as of right, to 

 Lord Henry Seymour. This extraordinary personage 

 was born in 1805, and died at Paris, which was also his 

 birthplace, in 1859. It is said that he never so much as 

 set foot in England (which was, Ilibernice, his native 

 land, though he was not ' raised ' there) ; but Paris 

 never knew a visitor or resident who displayed more of 

 the ' madness ' which foreigners consider natural to 

 Englishmen. He was supposed, as has been already 

 mentioned, to be related on his motlier's side to ' old 

 Q.' or George Selwyn, or both, and from either or both 

 of them he might well have inherited some of his odd 

 humours as well as his taste for horses and the Turf, 

 inasmuch as both George Selwyn and ' old Q.' were 

 members of our Jockey Club as well as men of strange 

 humours, and ' old Q.' was one of the most famous 

 gentlemen jockeys of his day, besides being one of the 

 most prominent patrons of tlie Turf. How Lord Henry 

 would drive about Paris and its neiofhbourhood witli 



