THE BLACKSMITH 195 



satin note-case, and seeing this superb animal trotting 

 to and fro, and Tat labouring up the ladder of 

 bidders a very unusual thing for Tat to do, by the 

 way Brown thought it wasn't possible he could take 

 any harm even if he got the horse, and if he didn't, 

 why giving a " bid " was a cheap piece of flash that 

 would tell in the City. Shock Jem, the enterprising 

 Mr. Py well, and other cheap Johns of the yard, had 

 run the horse up to their utmost limits, and still he 

 stood below what Blatherington Brown had in his 

 note-case. Accordingly he blurted out "fifty!" on 

 the top of forty-seven, and turned on his heel with a 

 neglige sort of air, as much as to say, he's worth that 

 if he's worth anything. 



" Ftffty ! going for fefty ! all you all done at fefty ! " 

 exclaimed Tattersall, with a quick glance around, and 

 in another instant the hammer was down. 



Blatherington wanted a second horse, for he was 

 going to Brighton, where he meant to play old goose- 

 berry with the Brighton and Brookside dogs, to say 

 nothing of astonishing Colonel Wyndham, and the 

 " East Sussex," and very well pleased he was with his 

 purchase until he got him into the Sussex clay, when 

 he began to play his old tricks, and off went the shoes. 

 A horse is desperately soon blown in the country \ 

 we don't mean in his wind, but in his character, and 

 Brighton being only a slice of London, poor Claudius 

 Hunter, for so Blatherington christened him, after the 

 great civic patron of white horses, very soon had his 

 London reputation tacked to his Brighton one, and 



he was what theatrical people call d d. In this 



dilemma it occurred to the fruitful mind of old Mr. 

 Boss, the tit-tup-ing, Hessian-booted riding master, 

 that Claudius might prove a valuable acquisition in his 

 stud. It may appear singular to our readers that a 

 horse which was a drug in one man's hands should be 

 an acquisition in another's, but Boss had lived a long 

 time in the world, almost as long as Widdicomb, who 



