42 HORSE-RACmO IN FEANCE 



The next ' item ' is Chevalier de Machaclo, who, as 

 his name would indicate, was a Spaniard, though he 

 was settled at Paris. Perhaps he belonged to the 

 embassy ; anyhow he was a gentleman of position and 

 influence, as is to be inferred from the fact that he was 

 employed by his Government, at the time of the Carlist 

 disturbances in 1834 or thereabouts, on a political 

 mission in London. He may have promoted the 

 interests of the Prench Turf to a greater extent than the 

 writer of these words wots of, but little or no trace of 

 his personal participation is to be found in the generally 

 accepted records of French horse-racing and horse- 

 breeding. 



There remains to be noticed M. de Normandie, a 

 very prominent personage among the ' fathers of the 

 French Turf.' He would occupy an official position 

 now and then at the flat racing, and in steeple-chasing 

 he was regarded (not so much by his rivals, perhaps, 

 save in their secret hearts, as by his friends and him- 

 self) as facile princeps. Princeps is said advisedly, for in 

 one French publication certainly, if not in more, he is 

 styled ' Due de Normandie,' a slight mistake with which 

 his colours, being ' all white,' suggesting some connec- 

 tion with the Poyal Bourbons, may have had something 

 to do. Even the ' fifth-form schoolboy,' whom Lord 

 Macaulay was fond of crediting with a miraculous 

 amount of knowledge, is no doubt aware — much more 

 should a French publication have been — that since the 

 ducal seal was solemnly broken in 1469, and Normandy 

 declared inseparable from the crown of France for ever, 

 the title of Duke de Normandie has been borne by 

 nobody but Louis XVI. 's second son, more commonly 

 known as the ephemeral Louis XVII. It is in quite a 

 difierent direction that we must look for the family of 



