i8 INTRODUCTION 



do the figure of 8 and other airs de manege with which I 

 intended to capture my Continental client. All this time 

 Mr. Hames was so earnestly engaged in conversation with 

 my wife, that he evidently forgot the very existence of the 

 mare in fact, he must have confused her in his mind with 

 some higher-priced animal for he asked me ^"30 more for 

 her than I thought he had previously wanted. I was, how- 

 ever, so conceited with my own riding, especially as Mr. 

 Hames had often expressed his admiration of it in my hear- 

 ing, that I readily agreed to the price, which subsequently 

 turned out to be less than the actual value of the mare. 

 That deal being over, Mr. Hames pointed out to me another 

 gee which he said he would sell me worth the money, 

 because it would not lep. " Let me try ? " I shouted, chock- 

 full of jumping powder and desire to show off. After I had 

 raced the supposed reluctant one over the not very formid- 

 able obstacles, and brought her up to the pair of admiring 

 spectators, Mr. Hames, turning to my wife, exclaimed with 

 delight: " What an artful, Irish way your husband has with 

 horses. Yesterday, there were a dozen of us here trying 

 to make her jump, and though we gave her 'toko,' she 

 wouldn't look at a fence, and now see the way he has put the 

 1 come-hether ' on her ! " Of course I bought that mare, 

 which turned out well with some careful schooling. What I 



o 



particularly like about Mr. Hames is his willingness to take 

 back any horse which I have bought from him and which I 

 subsequently find does not suit me an alternative I have 

 not had occasion to avail myself of up to the present. 



Some people are so little accustomed to the receipt of 

 civility unmixed with guile, that even Mr. Harnes cannot 

 always inspire them with confidence. A rich gentleman 

 whom I heard of, on being asked by an acquaintance to come 

 up with him to Mr. Hames' stables, exclaimed : " I w r ould 

 not go there for a hundred pounds ; for Sam Hames is 



