896 
A French Haras and Horse Fair. 
as in Scotland, all appeared kinsmen — " if not of kin, they were 
at least most wondrous kind." 
To Kerivon and to Morlaix I travelled through a beautiful 
and all undulating country, well wooded and timbered, and 
variously and beautifully tinted by the effects of early autumn. 
Hedges with hedgerow timber, and banks topped with fantastic 
trees, lined out small grass fields full of cattle and sheep. There 
was unfolded to me a panoramic view of picturesque beauty — 
smiling pasture-lands, rocky ravines, rolling landes, wooded dells, 
the sheen and the splash of the brawling upland torrent, and 
everywhere the yellow broom, the plant of the country, the 
genet, suggesting the badge and the name of our Royal Plan- 
tagenets. Not far from Morlaix, at Roscoff, there is most splendid 
early vegetable land at a fabulous annual rental, and well worthy 
of a practical Englishman's study. The editor of the recent 
edition of Arthur Young's Travels in France calls Brittany 
" the grainery of France and the market-garden of England " 
— I do not exactly see the grainery, but I fully recognise and 
desire to call attention to the English market-garden. 
The considerable and increasing vegetable trade with Eng- 
land has established a weekly communication to and fro between 
Morlaix and Weymouth ; I understand the passenger accommo- 
dation is not very good. Morlaix may be conveniently reached 
also by St. Malo, and rail from thence, or from Havre by sea. 
No horse or animal can be embarked in France without a certifi- 
cate of soundness, which costs sixpence ; the all-inclusive cost 
of sending a horse from Morlaix to Cardiff was said to be some 
forty-five shillings. 
Wolves, until quite recently, were common in Brittany, but 
civilisation and strychnine have improved them from off the 
face of the earth, to the great regi'et of an ancient wiry little 
old French baron, the premier chasseur of Brittany — at the 
rural club I was presented to this celebrity. His hounds were 
of a bloodhound cross, and he himself, he told me, always 
bestrode an English thoroughbred, in his opinion the best 
mount in the world. After an excellent dinner, washed down 
with Algerian claret, the old sportsman gave me, with much 
gusto, a charming vivid and pantomimic description of a wolf 
hunt, including an all-fours representation of his hounds, together 
with a barking chorus. 
Before climbing the hill to reach the high ground above 
Morlaix, on which the fair is held, a few observations in regard to 
the men and horses of the country may not be out of place. First 
as regards the horses, there is no question as to the endurance 
of the little horses of the countiy ; they, many of them, of all 
