CHAPTER X. 



If my reader has by this time mounted himself to 

 his satisfaction, he will be dismayed to learn, that 

 he has yet much to do in the way of precaution, be- 

 fore he can hug himself in his purchase. 



A friendly critic in the Old Sporting Magazine 

 has humorously compared me to Accum, the cele- 

 brated chemist, of " death-in-the-pot " reputation. 

 I will take this opportunity of setting myself right 

 in this matter. I have never said that a sound 

 horse is unattainable in the market ; but merely 

 that animals of this description do not often find 

 their way into it. My object has been to enable 

 the inexperienced to form some judgment for them- 

 selves upon the merits of such horses as they are 

 most likely to find there, and especially to guard 

 them against the common error of allowing their 

 judgment to be warped by the amount of the price 



