146 HORSE-RACING IX FRANCE 



racing both in England and France is almost summed 

 up in the single word Gladiatenr. 



Vermont, who had defeated the winner of the Eng- 

 lish Derby, was very well ; and Fille de I'Air, who had 

 run the winner of the Derby almost to a standstill and 

 had won the Oaks at Epsom as well as at Chantilly, 

 had been all very well ; but there had been a bitter 

 drop in the cup of French bliss, for in both these cases, 

 though the dams had been bred in France, the sires 

 (The Nabob and Faugh-a-Ballagh) were English, more 

 or less recently imported from England. Gladiatenr 

 was free from any such reproach ; his sire, Monarque, 

 was ' bred in France ' at the celebrated M. A. Aumont's 

 stud at Victot, and his dam. Miss Gladiator, was ' bred 

 in France ' at the celebrated Mr. Thomas Carter's stud 

 (at Vineuil, apparently), and afterwards purchased by 

 Count F. de Lagrange. This it was, this complete 

 ' Frenchiness ' of Gladiatenr, which made his victories 

 over all the flower of English horsedom so doubly de- 

 lightful to the race of Charlemagne, so ' crowful ' to the 

 Gallic cock, so grateful to feelings still suffering from 

 the memory of Trafalgar and Waterloo. 



Gladiatenr was foaled at Dangu, and of course 

 (as men afterwards remembered when he grew great) 

 there were wonders connected with the birth of such a 

 prodigy. He is said to have been produced by a man- 

 oeuvre worthy of the astute Jacob, the patriarch, who 

 played such clever tricks with the hazel rods and the 

 cattle and sheep of his father-in-law, Laban. If it had 

 been his mother-in-law (who notoriously has no friends, 

 poor soul) it would have been considered quite fair, no 

 doubt. Well, an enthusiastic ' compatriot ' gives the 

 following account of Gladiateur's birtli, an account 

 which breathes the spirit of a Grecian dithyrambic 



