330 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



crously high ; the horse is in its perfect state only in 

 an unreclaimed condition ; and it may well be doubt- 

 ed if even in a state of nature the majority of the 

 herd are perfect. 



I have understood the opinion of Mr. Mavor, an 

 eminent veterinary surgeon, to have been given in a 

 court of law, that " he considers a horse to be sound 

 which is perfect in structure, and perfect in function ; 

 and that even Avhere his structure is not perfect, that 

 if he has never been lame, or incapacitated from per- 

 forming his ordinary duties, nor likely to be incapa- 

 citated from performing them with equal facility, he 

 still is sound."* 



* I have been censured in a review of this work for the quo- 

 tation of this opinion of Mr. Mavor's without acknowledging the 

 channel through which it reached me. The reviewer, after 

 alluding to a book called " The Horseman's Manual," and inti- 

 mating that I had untruly denied a knowledge of that book, says 

 of Mr. Mavor's opinion, " We know it was furnished exclusively 

 to the author of ' the Horseman's Manual.' " This knowledge of 

 the reviewer strongly implies that he is one and the same person 

 with the author of the Manual, and the soreness which he betrays 

 at my omitting to mention that work by name, adds strength to 

 the suspicion. Had I availed myself of Mr. Mavor's opinions and 

 attempted to pass them current as my own, I should have been 



