THE EMPIRE AND THE REPUBLIC 277 



240 English horses, and the trade they meant to the EngHsh 

 breeder. He calls the cowhouse ' noble,' and he means what 

 'he says ; but all the beauties of Versailles and St. Germains 

 make no amends for royal and noble indifference to the 

 complete system of turnip cultivation which he held so near 

 his heart. But the most utihtarian side of Mr. Morley's 

 ' wise and honest traveller ' would have been gratified by 

 the forests of to-day. Thrift and forestry have tamed 

 Chantilly and Halatte, but especially Chantilly, until it is 

 difficult to trace a vestige of what we understand over here 

 by natural woodland. Even the Scotch firs are shaven to 

 the geometrical alignment of the alleys and to the perspective 

 of a point Of sight. I could not help feeling that the deer 

 were a sort of well-to-do colonists living under an ordered 

 dispensation and ascertained conditions. Fontainebleau is 

 different : in spite of economics there are desolations of sand 

 deserts and heather, confusions of grey rock, splashes of lonely 

 water, which belong of right to the tall deer, and which still 

 set at nought the estimates and votes on account of a 

 department. 



I have said little or nothing in this chapter about horses 

 and riders, and I have confined myself to observations upon 

 the hounds. In France the hound is the Paramount. In the 

 next chapters I will try to contrast French and English 

 ideas of horses and riding, suggested by my own personal 

 experiences. 



