THE FRENCH STOEY RESUMED 231 



issue, 1883. In a few notable instances, such as 

 the case of the stallion recorded as Jean-le-Blanc 

 (739), an attempt was made to ground some of 

 the contemporary pedigrees in the blood of stal- 

 lions of good repute known to have lived in a dis- 

 tant past, but the record ascribed to such horses 

 has in some cases yet to be substantiated by authen- 

 tic data. Jean-le-Blanc 's existence can scarcely be 

 a subject of doubt, but in the matter of his alleged 

 descent from Gallipoly, in the light of our investi- 

 gations at Paris covering the period in which he 

 is said to have been foaled, we can only enter up 

 the old Scotch verdict — "not proven." There 

 probably was such a stallion as Jean-le-Blanc, else 

 the name could never have been handed down with 

 so much veneration, but no man lives today who 

 can verify any part of his history. 



We have been at some pains to run down the 

 story of this erstwhile celebrated progenitor of 

 latter-day Percherons, but the most we can get in 

 the Perche is from a few of the oldest breeders, 

 who say that in their youth they remember hearing 

 their fathers speak of such a horse. He is said 

 to have been foaled in 1823 or 1824, but while the 

 official records of that period, which we have al- 

 ready presented, seem complete and circumspect 

 in their listing of government-owned and govern- 

 ment-approved horses, they contain no mention of 

 Jean-le-Blanc. He is said to have lived to be 25 

 years of 'age and to have left a numerous progeny. 

 Fortunately, however, at this late date the matter 



