A French Hanis and Horse Fair. 
.399 
crammed with horses, aud, besides, all the roads around were 
full to repletion, a sort of Falkirk Tryst of horses. As to an 
estimate of the exact number, Mr. Talbot, writing to me under 
date November 30, 1887, says : " As to the number of liorses at 
the Foire Haute at ]\Iorlaix on October 15 last, 4,039 horses 
passed through the town and paid toll (octroi) ; but this does 
not represent half the number at the fair, as the majority came 
from the country north, east, and south of Morlaix ; competent 
judges estimate the number at not less than 10,000. During 
the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday over two hundred waggons, 
with an average of eight horses each, left JMorlaix Station for 
various parts of France and Spain." 
To return to the fair, which generally was characterised by 
a want of finish about every equine production, the most valu- 
able horses, and the appreciative connoisseurs, such as the 
Comte de Carcaradec, !M. le Directeur from Lamballe, my friends 
of the rural club, and others, were gathered together under the 
shady trees of the first enclosure. A horsey French gentleman at 
a horse fair is invariably armed with a huton Normand ; this is 
a stout tapering stick held at the thinner end, which is furnished 
with an elaborate leather handpiece, with a wrist-strap ; this 
baton, when the soothing " Oh hi ! Hiii ! has failed to charm, 
is for protection against the charges of the more sportive horses, 
which sometimes conduct themselves much in the style of the 
Blondin donkey of the music-hall stage. Elsewhere I certainly 
saw some grand heavy horses of the Bouloimais and Percheron 
type, but these were the exception ; the rest were rough unshapely 
little Breton Bidets — mediocrity in abundance — a gi'eat mass of 
■ unleavened horseflesh, mth here aud there something rather risen. 
All, or nearly all, the horses we saw were from two and 
a half to three and a half years old ; there were, however, many 
foals, and all hog-maned. The prevailing colours were grey and 
chestnut, with a few roans ; the roans and skewbalds are said to 
sell best; the Count told me dark chestnut {queue et crin laves), 
with white tail and mane, is much the fashion. Some of the 
horses were in glowing condition ; all the superior ones fat and 
fresh, but bad feet everywhere ; the better horses had excellent 
dealers' manners, stretching out in true Yorkshire fashion. All 
the low dealer's tricks appear to be well known in France, dark 
and hot stables and cooked grain, '• spicing," jounching, wedg- 
ing, and blowing, they say Le Maquignon tromperait son pere.'' 
A coloured Jilet is invariably twisted into the tail, and when a 
sale is effected this is pulled ofi" and retained by the vendor as a 
trophy ; in many cases the colour of the filet betokens a winner 
in the Concoitrs regionawx— a local agricultural show encouraged 
