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A French Hams and Horse Fair. 
great stables in stalls head to head, clear of all walls, and against 
a central screen high enough only for the purpose of absolute 
separation ; over every horse there is painted in large characters 
his name and breeding. The two ranges of stalls are bisected 
by a broad passage. There are also in each stable four corner 
boxes for the more valuable horses, and more boxes, for cases 
of sickness, are placed outside the left block of buildings. The 
stallions are carefully and most methodically classed and grouped ; 
being treated with gentleness, they are gentle ; and are sys- 
tematically used for riding or driving, and regularly exercised 
according to their several capacities. The stables are perfectly 
sweet and clean, not a wet straw, not an offensive substance 
remaining to be removed. We saw no brooms, or wisps, or 
rubbers, or stable tools left about ; they allow at Lamballe one 
man to three horses — indeed, I never saw anywhere stables so 
nicely kept. 
The establishment consists of the Directeur, M. Chambry — 
im veritable liomme de ckeval — a personal friend of Count de 
Carcaradec ; a Sous-Directeur, M. Quincher ; and two Surveil- 
lants — all members of an organised and specially educated 
establishment. With one of the Surveillants, M. de Salverte, we 
made great friends : he was sent to meet us at the station ; he 
is well connected, and appeared to us to be a well-educated 
and most promising young man. Nothing could exceed the 
much appreciated courtesy and kindness in our regard of our 
most able host M. le Directeur. The working staff all told are 
some 76 strong fine men perfectly turned out — the brigadiers 
in black jackets, silver galloon, and forage-caps ; the pale- 
freniers (grooms), smart in scarlet jackets and white overalls, 
over boots with spurs — all were exactly regulated, even down 
to the men who ran the horses, for we noticed these men had 
their chin straps down, so that there should be no distraction 
amongst the prancing horses from fly-away forage-caps. 
All steeped in sunshine, men, horses, buildings, trees, and 
grass together formed a mise-en-scene so perfect as to suggest to 
my mind the idea of some beautifully painted peepshow — that 
I was looking through a powerful magnifying-glass at some 
wonderfully constructed working model. 
The horses are all secured in a manner I never have seen 
before ; it is excellent and noteworthy. A centre post of iron 
shaped like a tuning-fork, or a post of wood and iron, having in 
either case a central and vertical slot, some two fingers wide, 
extending from near the ground up to within a few inches of 
the under-side of the manger. Up and down this slot the fixed 
end of a collar sliank works easily and noiselessly in the follow- 
