FROM HOWL FOE ' RECIPROCITY ' TO' PRESENT DAY 321 



last part of this proposal.' Why? Because 'it was a 

 lagging affair,' which means that it was an affair for 

 which Mr. Bloodsworth and his confederates were liable 

 to be ' lagged ' : or ' transported.' Such is the treatment 

 to which the ' noble animal,' if he be a favourite for 

 the Derby or some similar big race, is liable at tlie 

 hands of ignoble man. 



But to return to Plaisanterie : What was her breed- 

 ing ? She was a daughter of Welhngtonia and Poetess. 

 Wellingtonia was an English sire, not imported into 

 France permanently until 1885, but leased in 1878. 

 Poetess was pure French, a daughter of the ' savane ' 

 Trocadero and La Dorette ; she was foaled at M. 

 Aumont's celebrated ' Haras de Victot.' La Dorette's 

 dam was Mon Etoile, daughter of Hervine, daughter 

 of Lord Henry Seymour's famous Poetess (dam of 

 Monarque), winner of the French Derby (Prix de 

 Diane) in 1841. Now here is a puzzle for breeders : 

 from which side, maternal (from Poetess, dam of both 

 Hervine and Monarque) or paternal (from Wellins:- 

 tonia and his progenitors) did Plaisanterie derive her 

 excellence ? For her dam. Poetess XL, sufll'ered (it 

 has been said, but also denied) from ' paralysie dans 

 les reins ' ; at any rate she appears to have been cast 

 off" at an early age from the famous Victot stud, to 

 have been declined by the ' remount commission,' and 

 to have never run. Not a very promising dam, one 

 would think ; but she was purchased by Viscount de 

 Danger, who has flatly denied the imputations against 

 her soundness. As for Wellingtonia (son of Chattanooga, 

 son of Orlando, son of Touchstone), he came of excel- 

 lent descent, and by means of his progeny (Plaisanterie 

 Prudence, Printemps, &c.) took the first place amono- 

 ' winning sires ' of French -bred animals (victories in 



Y 



