A French Haras and Horse Fair. 
883 
Young rode a blind English mare and carried saddle-bags ; his 
mare was worth sixteen guineas English money ; she excited 
general admiration, and never in Brittany met a rival. He 
says in his day the finest horse in Bretagne was not worth two 
and a half guineas. 
To understand, or to try to understand, the mental aim which 
has suggested the collection of the stud at Lamballe, now having 
a life and an experience of some forty years, we must remember 
the physical geography of Brittany, as well as study what I may 
be allowed to call a hippie map of the country. The Count de 
Carcaradec, who has an intimate knowledge of the subject, was 
so good as to mark a map for me dividing the whole province into 
six districts thus hippically characterised. 
In No. 1 district, with Dol for a centre, there are no mares; 
they buy at six months, and sell at four years old for Paris and 
the South, heavy horses. In No. 2, round Lamballe and Lannion, 
every farm has four or five mares, heavy horses, and all brood 
mares. The fillies are often kept, or bought for breeding in 
Finistere ; the entire colts are sold to No. 1 district. In No. 3, 
Morlaix and the surrounding country, five or six brood-mares 
are kept on each farm, and sent to Norfolk horses, or to Nor- 
mandy carriage-horses. Carriage-horses and posters are raised, 
and sold at three years old to go everywhere. No. 4 district, 
circling Carhaix, Quimper, and that neighbourhood. — Two or 
three brood-mares may be found on each farm ; these little 
mares of the country have blood, and are put to blood-horses 
or to well-bred half-breds. In No. 5, Vannes, Eedon, and the 
parts adjacent, you may find a mare or two on each farm : but 
the horses hereabouts do not show much quality ; this is the 
home of the Bidets, the little native hardy Bretons. In No. 6 
district, down about Nantes, near La Vendee, many good horses 
are bred, both hunters and harness-horses — half-bred horses. 
The Government inspectors are always looking round these dis- 
tricts, and buy a horse or two in each town just "to keep the 
thing going."' 
Haras is said' to be dei-ived from the Arab word "Faras," a 
horse ; and synonymous words are to be found in various lan- 
guages, as the Spanish " Alfaraz,"' and also in bas-Grec and bas- 
Latin. These national studs are as old as the Medes and 
Persians. The French national Haras dates from Cardinal 
Richelieu's time, and was especially designed with a view to 
army remounts. There was an edict in the year 1639 — and in 
1665 the Minister Colbert re-established the Haras system on 
Grand Dictionnairc Larovcstc. Paris, 1873, Art. "Haras." 
