IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 235 



the lips or forehead ; a spur of formidable length 

 adorns one heel ; and all, without exception, have the 

 hat elevated, with a demi-cock, and the two lowest 

 buttons of the coat or waistcoat unbuttoned. Such 

 are your competitors at every horse-sale : now and 

 then a stray gentleman, or one in the garb of a gen- 

 tleman, may be seen threading his way through the 

 dirty mob ; especially at Tattersall's, on the sale of 

 a racing or hunting stud ; on these state occasions, 

 they, in fact, constitute the mob. It is some small 

 comfort to find oneself in clean society, but as re- 

 gards all substantial points, the novice is as safely 

 mixed with one herd as the other. I must not omit 

 the auctioneer ; but description is difficult. Shabby 

 gentility is not the phrase ; yet his cut is always 

 " shabby genteel." Were the coat made by Stultz, 

 and the boots by Hoby, there is an indescribable 

 peculiarity in the wear of the habiliments, that 

 marks, not the gentleman, but the tolerated asso- 

 ciate of soi-disant gentility : — a vulgar would-be 

 equality, recognized on the turf, and scouted else- 

 where; — a "one of us" pretension, countenanced 

 at Newmarket, half-acknowledged at Melton, but 

 spurned within the purlieus of St. James's : a salu- 



