A Preneh Haras and Horse Fair. 
401 
absolute property of the possessor. The farmer had five mares on 
the same terms, and used five different sires. 
The prices at this fair were considered bad, owing to a 
scarcity of hay and roots. Foals by Haras horses were sold 
for next to nothing, or given away ; three good-looking and sound 
colts at six months were sold at Plouaret for 17 fr. 75 c., 
or rather less than 5s. of English money each. I saw in the 
fair a nice roan colt, well-grown, and by Bronze, a horse of 
the Laraballe Haras, sold for 80 francs, or about 31. ; the owner 
cried out that it was given away. I made friends with a Welsh 
vegetable merchant, who also did a little in horse-dealing — a plea- 
sant, clever, very practical man. I was with him when he bought 
a black mare (16 hands 1 incli)for 32Z.,andabrownof same height 
for 261. — both strong useful van-horses or trappers ; altogether 
he bought eleven horses, at 181. to 20/. each. Four nice chestnut 
geldings of 15 hands 2 inches, a match team, went to Paris; my 
friend the vegetable man had been bidding for them, he turned 
round, and the horses were sold for only 50 francs over his bid, 
they sold for 30Z. each. A grey that matched the before-men- 
tioned black, a stepper, sold for 500 francs. The Welsh dealer 
told me that the year before he bought at St. Malo a Norfolk- 
Breton for 301., and sold him in Wales for 99/. for trotting races : 
the Norfolk-Breton could do, he said, a mile in 2 min. 35 sec. I 
much admired the Norfolk-Bretons " du Finistere," near the 
ground, compact little horses. I saw a nice pair of them in 
harness at Dinard Races. " Charbonnier," the admirable black 
Percheron Haras stallion before mentioned, was represented 
within my own observation by two mares — one, the dam by a 
Percheron, was sold for 36/., and cost at three months old 12/. ; 
the other was a great lumbering half-Boulonnais blue roan, I 
did not see her sold. A fine black mare by " Fire-King," dam 
a Norfolk-Breton, sold for 32/. I examined a good mare by 
" Veneur," by " Lozenge," dam by " Grey Shales," not quite 
straight in the fore-legs as you met her. There was a great big 
fine heavy mare by " Fire-King " seven years old ; she had four 
foals, and wore a lot of medals ; her value said to be 85/., but this 
I question. I noticed a gi'ey carriage-horse, a little long in the 
leg, by " Tregarvon," out of a Norman mare ; 34/. was asked 
for her. I need only further mention a nice square-made cobby 
horse by " Sir Richard," said to be worth from 20/. to 24/., and 
good value for the money. " Men speak of a fair as things 
went there " ; to my mind the whole fair suggested that which is 
a fact — the Haras and its influences, notwithstanding all the best 
horses outside the Haras are drained out of the district, and 
many of them out of the country,' and that the mass of average 
' The following table, showing the importation and exportation of horses 
