12 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



"Is thirty guineas the lowest price?" ''I have 

 asked thee what I believe to be his just value, and 

 I shall take no less." 



I was satisfied, paid my money, was well pleased 

 with my purchase for three days ; and then disco- 

 vered, what very little reflection might have told me 

 at first, that the Quaker being two stone lighter than 

 myself, and presumably a quiet rider, a horse that 

 would carry him safely, would, in less than a week, 

 break his own knees and endanger my neck ! But I 

 was not deceived ; he was a good horse, though not 

 fit for me. I sold him again, and lost nothing by 

 him. Some time after he was driven a stage of 

 fourteen miles, and kept the lead of a chariot and 

 four, with a new married couple, starting from the 

 church to spend the honeymoon I 1 dare say that 

 my friends will not have yet forgotten the celerity 

 with which their first relay was ordered out at Can- 

 terbury ; thanks to the speed of my Quaker. 



I resolved that my second purchase should at all 

 events be strong enough to bear me. I therefore 

 pitched upon a cob; he was, to use the accepted 

 phrase, "built like a castle I" there was "no non- 

 sense about him," most assuredly; but he unluckily 

 moved like a castle ! I have the greatest aversion 



