A French liar as and Horse Fair. 
387 
speculation, thus I'apidly anuiliilating our hippie force. These 
hot-house stallions of the Haras are no good ; we want the pro- 
ducts of an open country and open air. The veterinaire en premier 
next takes a turn at the "• Anglomaniacs of our regiments," the 
sportsmen — " le sporUman, qui tient le stick au lieu du sahre." 
The English crosses, he says, are delicate ; it is impossible to 
keep them going in our regimental stables. The hunter only is 
to be called English, in the sense of a good horse ; we admire, 
but reject him ; he cannot bear privation ; of this in the Crimea 
our allies had painful proof. The inquiry here might naturally 
occur, What on earth would you do, M. Lemichel, to raise 
a vast mixed quantity of rough and flabby scratch light horses 
to something like an even and useful level ? He virtually replies, 
Improve* our French native races by inter-selection and better 
keep — truly better keep is a great factor — but what of the 
system " de Vin and in" that is to say, " des iinions dans et 
dans." M. Lemichel finally winds up with a passage of splendid 
eloquence referring to the warrior virtues of the true French 
war-horse, which, forgetting a middle piece, are, according to 
him, legs and heart! — " des jamhes et du cceur." 
Lamballe, it should be distinctly understood, is a stud of entire 
horses only : collected at that place, and there maintained during 
the inert part of the year, during the season they are distributed all 
over the district at such stations as appear best to the Director. 
The word station implies that the horses do not travel, but 
approved mares are brought to them, the fee for service in 
Brittany being from 6 to 20 francs, and the duty done per 
horse does not exceed the low average previously mentioned. 
Header, please figure to yourself a great parallelogram about 
300 yards long, by 44 yards wide, the ground absolutely flat, and 
without a loose stone. One end of the Lamballe Haras is 
occupied by the great entrance-gates, the porter's lodge, and the 
pleasant residence of M. le Directeur, the sides are bounded 
respectively by two great detached stables, four in all, with 
on one side the centrally situated coach-house, on the other 
the saddle and harness room ; the opposite end being open to a 
far-reaching landscape. On the outer side of the right-hand 
blocks of buildings there is a long broad road, up and down 
which the horses are trotted when shown out in hand. Beyond 
again, and far off, are the shoeing shops and other oflices, but 
planted out, and all arranged with characteristic taste, grass and 
flower-beds interspersed with trees and bosquets together forming 
an agreeable and well-kept pleasure-ground. The buildings, of 
white rough-cast, with solid granitic stone-dressings, are most 
substantial, and very spacious, The horses stand in the four 
