290 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



CHAPTEE XVII 



FRENCH HORSES 



Quant a moi, je suis bien asseur^, qu'il n'y a rien d'universel dans la 

 cavalerie, ni aucume autre chose que je scbache . , . Mes voeux seront pour les 

 noble cavallerizzes, a ce qu'ils puissent garder cette profession honorable 

 exempte de taches et blemissures, afin de s'attirer I'estime des plus grands 

 Roys et Princes. — Methode et invention nouvelle dc Dresser les Chevaux, par 

 le Prince Guillaume, Marquis et Comte de Newcastle, &c. (Anvers, 1658.) 



M. Le Jeune laments, in the article I have already referred 

 to, the absence of any hunters of French stock with the 

 fashionable packs round Paris. Everything, he says — this 

 was in 1878 — is English. To some extent this is true now. 

 Just as American ladies must buy their clothes in Paris — it 

 is an obligation to be applauded by every man of taste who 

 has not to pay their bills — the cream of Chantilly and Com- 

 piegne like to have their horses from England. A French- 

 man quite enjoys telling you that the horse he is riding 

 distinguished himself at the Dublin Show, or that he was bred 

 in ' le Yorkshire.' It is a not unpleasing fact, too, tliat in a 

 show class of harness or half-bred riding horses, the odds are 

 still in favour of the pick of the basket being an English horse. 

 Yet at the same time the average 60/. or 70Z. English horse, 

 which is sold in Paris at 120/. or 140/., is not a better 

 animal, tested by English standards of quality and action, 

 than the home-bred horse which can be bought for very 

 much less money in France. 



Put what does M. Le Jeune mean by French stock? 



