172 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



which tlie title of the Prix Gladiateur lias undergone : the 

 race dates from a comparatively very early period, and it 

 was originally called ' Prix Ptoyal,' then ' Prix National,' 

 then 'Prix Imperial,' or' Grand Prix de I'Empereur,' until 

 it was at last named after a horse, a name which should 

 be ' stable.' 



So now we have come to 1870 ; and the most 

 important question, so far as French horse-racing was 

 concerned, was what would become of the liorses which 

 Count F. de Lagrange desired to sell, keeping to him- 

 self, however, most fortunately, at his ' haras ' at Dangu, 

 the great sire Monarque, certain ' youngsters,' and the 

 ' galaxy ' of brood mares whose sultan that sire was. The 

 hour and the man both came : M. Joachim Lefevre, a 

 ' financial ' gentleman settled (it was understood) in Lon- 

 don (though afterwards of Chamant and Newmarket), 

 having formerly had a small racing-stable at Chantilly or 

 in the neighbourhood, was found equal to the occasion, 

 becoming, either for himself or an association of which he 

 was head, the purchaser- — in a lump — of all the Count's 

 horses in training or about to commence training, and 

 taking over [quod rerum omnium fuit primum) the 

 experienced Monsieur Thomas de Jennings, Ariglice 

 Tom Jennings, to be trainer and manager. So it is said 

 by a good French authority ; but General was certainly 

 purchased, whether from the Count himself or from M. 

 Lefevre, by the Duke of Hamilton, and won the Criterion 

 in his name. 



M. Lefevre forthwith be<T;an to race in England 

 under the appropriate pseudonym of ' Mr. T. Lombard ' 

 (with a playful allusion, it was supposed, to Lombard 

 Street), as well as in his own name, with the ' colours ' 

 of the Eepublic, red, white, and blue. 



But this is outrunnin<]r the clock a little ; let us 



