Sir, – "Buttevant's ancient horse fair attracts eager crowd" (July 15th) states that a local historian claims Napoleon's white Arabian horse Marengo was bought at Cahirmee fair. In fact the horse was born in Egypt and obtained by the emperor during his Egyptian campaign. Marengo was captured after the Battle of Waterloo and died in England some years later.
The article also finishes with the statement that the Duke of Wellington’s equally famous horse, Copenhagen, was “purchased at Cahirmee about 1810”. Wellington’s horse was first owned by Lord Grosvenor and named after the eponymous battle at which both Grosvenor and Wellington were brigade commanders. Grosvenor’s mare was in foal with Copenhagen at the Battle of Copenhagen and the foal was later raced, to little avail, before being purchased by another officer in the Peninsular War. The horse then passed into Wellington’s hands and stayed so until its death, when it was buried on Wellington’s Hampshire estate.
Horses and tall tales often go together. – Yours, etc,
NOEL LEAHY,
Knockbrack,
Abbeyfeale,
Co Limerick.