Ciuo Copcrig. 77 



the tale, further than that I, for the first time, I 

 beheve, lay before the public, as nearly as I can in 

 their own words, the afternoon's experience of two 

 Copers, not so very long ago, at a certain Midland 

 Counties' Repository, which it is unnecessary to call 

 by name. 



The Catalogue, as usual, was a full one, and the 

 numerous lots to be offered consisted of horses good, 

 bad and indifferent, large studs, small studs, and 

 single lots. One of the latter happened on this par- 

 ticular occasion to be a remarkably good-looking 

 Brown Gelding, which was described — to quote from 

 the catalogue itself — as Lot 39 ; the property of a 

 gentleman : 



" Harkaway," a Brown Gelding, 6 years, 15.3; 

 Quiet to ride and drive ; a good fencer, and 

 has been regularly hunted up to date. 



Well, to continue my narrative, it was whilst Mr. 

 W. (a young, but by no means inexperienced member 

 of the dealing fraternity) was in the box of the above 

 described horse, that the portly form of the opulent 

 Mr. B. also appeared upon its threshold. Now Mr. 

 B. was a man of some note, through whose hands 

 horses of the highest class often passed, and who 

 was averse to buying, knowingly, anything inferior, 

 or with an " if" about it. Mr. W., on the contrary, 

 dealt in anything in which his keen judgment saw 



