246 
Bepwt %i,pon the Sping SJlow of 
belonging to private individuals, but still under a certain 
amount of State control. The connection maintained with the 
turf also was always of a useful character; stout runners 
were the horses sought for in England, and Prix des Haras and 
Prix Imperiaux were always fixed at 4,000 metres (two miles 
six furlongs), and under fairly hea\y conditions as to weight. 
It was considered also that horses capable of winning steeple- 
chases over four miles, under twelve and thirteen stone, were 
likely to get the sort of horses the country required, and so 
such steeplechases were established for thoroughbred stallions. 
The races for half- or three-parts-bred horses born in France 
were another important feature, and, just as the third Napoleon 
was completing his days of empire, the results were great indeed 
of what may be called two decades of the Haras system. The 
racing stables had more than doubled in numbers in twenty 
years ; they were full of horses as good as could have been bred 
in England, with Gladiateur standing out as a specimen, at 
that time regarded as the horse of the century. There was no 
m.ore necessity to go to England for stallions, as the horses bred 
in the country g'ave a choice much greater than the supply for 
the Haras required ; and, to speak of the half- and three-parts- 
bred stock, I have seen as good a field of cross-bred French 
horses run in a steeplechase provided for their class, as could be 
found in hunter stakes in England. The horses brought out by 
the great Normandy breeders — the Messrs. Forcinal — were very 
prominent in this division, and they were the admiration of all 
the English hunting men who patronised the steeplechases at 
Vincenues. 
The Anglo-Normans looked quite like a rising breed just 
before the war broke out, and I can recollect seeing a regiment 
of cavaliy pass, in the neighbourhood of Paris, which in the 
opinion of an old English officer, who was standing near me, and 
who had ridden a winner in a Grand National at Liverpool, liad 
the best horses he had ever seen under uniforms. His idea was 
that he could have picked fifty young hunters out of the ranks. 
Many of these fine regiments were, I know, annihilated at almost 
the outset of the war, and I suppose the disasters which befel 
France exhausted most of the ready stock of horses ; but that 
had nothing to do with the Haras system. 
The character of the French horses had been changed completely 
in a few yeai's by a constant method of breeding from tlie best of 
English thoroughbred stallions ; and from being the worst-horsed 
country in Europe, France was possibly one of the best in 1870, 
Such results are worth considering in these days, when the cry is 
raised that England is by no means what she used to be as 
regards her supply of horses ; and this assurance can be given, 
