28 A HISTORY OF THE PERCHERON HOBSE 



lumbering diligence before the advent of the rail- 

 way carriage, and apparently horses of the right 

 stamp were to be found in this famous old horse- 

 breeding province. 



The Eighteenth Century, — The first important 

 document that the archives of the Orne furnish is 

 a register, dated 1718, entitled, "Revue de juments 

 propres a porter des poulains, et a proximite des 

 gardes etalons, designees par le poil et les noms des 

 paroisses et des habitants auxquelles elles appartien- 

 nent, avec 1 'observation de celles qui ont ete trouvees 

 pleines la presente annee." This referred to the 

 brood mares in the Generality of Alengon, which in- 

 cluded the Election of Mortagne in The Perche. For 

 all the Generality, which includes a portion of Nor- 

 mandy, there were 6,278 brood mares ; of these 2,801 

 were in foal. In the Election of Mortagne alone, for 

 the year 1751, there were 1,735 brood mares, and of 

 this number 661 were found in foal. 



Later in the eighteenth century breeding opera- 

 tions in The Perche, as well as in other parts of 

 France, assumed greater importance. In 1754, ac- 

 cording to statistics (Archives Nationales) compiled 

 in conformity with the orders of the Marquis de 

 Voyer on fairs and markets in The Perche and Nor- 

 mandy, we find that Mortagne had four fairs a year, 

 but it was not possible to ascertain the number of 

 horses sold. Belleme had also four annual fairs, 150 

 to 300 head of horses being sold at each fair. No- 

 gent had a market every Saturday for the disposal 

 of horses, 50 to 60 entires and about 20 mares chang- 



