THE RENAISSANCE FOLLOWING THE REVOLUTION 57 



cause he reproduces a paragraph from the Abbe 

 Fret relating to the Percherons and adds, ' ' This is 

 equally the opinion of Odolant-Desnos, first Under- 

 Prefect of Mortagne." Now Odolant-Desnos is one 

 of the great historians of The Perche, but he was 

 not "first Under-Prefect of Mortagne," nor indeed 

 of anywhere else, but lived at Alengon and was by 

 profession a doctor of medicine. And in passing it 

 may be remarked that nearly all French writers have 

 reproduced the paragraph on the Percheron horse in 

 the Abbe Fret's history, biit none seems to have 

 been cognizant of the fact that the priest had copied 

 it, almost word for word, from Delestang's book 

 which had been published about 30 years previously. 



Delestang had procured his information from the 

 best local sources available, inviting the coopera- 

 tion and collaboration of the citizens of Mortagne 

 and the farmers of the surrounding country, and 

 the quoted paragraphs with which this chapter 

 opens, he obtained from a "Memoire sur 1 'agricul- 

 ture par le citoyen Fontenay." Delestang was the 

 author of several books, largely compilations of 

 statistics relating to his district, all of which was in 

 The Perche. These are full of interest, and yet they 

 seem to have escaped modern writers on the Per- 

 cheron horse. On page 17 of his ' ' Notice Statistique 

 de la sous prefecture de Mortagne," published in 

 1801 under the head of "Animal Production," he 

 says: 



"This consists principally of horses, cattle and 

 sheep. The horses, known under the name of Per- 



