IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 23 



for this estimate of the value of a good hack. 

 It is considered by the soi-disant knowing ones 

 as savoring too much of the cockney style thus 

 to fix a standard price for an animal whose value 

 is usually supposed to be arbitrary or acciden- 

 tal. To this I reply, that I am speaking of horses 

 as they are found in the London market ; and of 

 prices as they are commonly asked by London 

 dealers: the accidental hits of sporting life are too 

 numerous and also too mystified for my calculation ; 

 they are beyond the doctrine of chances ; but in 

 reference to a market price, I see no reason to 

 retract a word of what I have written ; and though 

 as little of a " Londoner" as a man born in some hem- 

 isphere some four thousand miles from the sound of 

 Bow-bells can pretend to be, I write for the benefit 

 of "Londoners," not of Meltonians. I have found 

 among these despised " Londoners," during twenty 

 years acquaintance with them, not only some of the 

 most intelligent and most amiable men of their day, 

 but as polished minds as St. James's can produce ; 

 (a doubtful compliment, it must be owned ;) and what 

 may appear yet more extraordinary to the readers of 

 the Sporting Magazine, unless they are familiar with 



