334 Among Men and Horses. 



Wilton, who is by far the largest manufacturer of side-saddles 

 in England. He greatly helped us by the experiments he 

 was always ready to carry out for us, and by giving us the 

 results of his unrivalled experience. He is the fourth genera- 

 tion of saddlers in his family ; and, although he has made an 

 ample fortune, he has determined that his two sons will be 

 the fifth generation in this trade. It is a pleasure to meet 

 a man like him who knows his business and takes a pride 

 in it 



Very long ago it used to be a mystery to me how a 

 saddler who had no workshop was able to execute orders 

 which required the employment of skilled labour. I subse- 

 quently found out these men have their work done for them, 

 except trifling repairs, by wholesale houses, which in, pro- 

 bably, nineteen out of twenty cases, belong to Walsall. As 

 the flaunting of a scarlet rag infuriates the proverbial bull, so 

 does the mention, by a layman, of the name of the busy 

 Staffordshire city make mad the ordinary workshopless 

 saddler. Honestly speaking, the surmise would be a com- 

 pliment ; for wholesale houses like Hampson & Scott, 

 Barnsby, and Christie turn out far finer work than any 

 ordinary retailer could produce, even if he had men under 

 him. The saddler without a workshop, if in London, will, as 

 a rule, admit that he sends his work ' out 1 ; but not to Walsall. 

 He airily explains that his workpeople prefer to labour in 

 their homes than to toil at a bench in his shop. He con- 

 cedes them this privilege, and states that they work under 

 his personal supervision. ' His workmen ' are of course those 

 of the wholesale house. Owing to their immense facilities, 

 the large Walsall firms work with extraordinary economy 

 and expedition. For instance, they can supply the retailer 

 with a saddle complete, for less money than he could cover 

 and stuff it in his own shop. Besides this, an order received 

 by the morning post for, say, a hundred sets of harness can 

 be executed during the day and the goods dispatched the 

 same evening! I have no intention of 'giving away' the 



