Frost- Bound. 183 



always attached to any of his lordship's nags, I 

 might venture — broken knee notwithstanding — to 

 go as far as £60 or £70. " Going to buy one of my 

 horses?" said his lordship, as I met him when 

 coming out from the stable. " Yes, I think so, my 

 lord," was my reply ; " the horse with the broken 

 knee looks like carrying me, and will go at my 

 figure, I expect." " Hope you'll get him," said the 

 noble earl ; but I did not, nevertheless. " AYhat does 

 any one say for Leicester?" was scarcely out of the 

 mouth of Richard Tattersall the elder, wdien some 

 one who knew the horse well bid 350 guineas, 

 dispelling my fond illusion of possessing the animal, 

 followed by rapid bids of 375, 400, 450, and 475 

 guineas, at which long figure he w^as knocked down. 

 " Well," said his lordship, " did you buy my horse? " 

 " No," was my reply, " he went for four hundred 

 more than my price." " Not a bad judge," said his 

 lordship, "for he was the best horse I ever had in 

 my life." Determined not to go home without 

 effecting a purchase, I looked around me, and my 

 eye alighted on a sporting-like mare then up at the 

 hammer, and I heard the Mr. Edmund Tattersall of 

 that day exclaim, " Will no one make a bid for the 

 mare % " " Well," said a seedy-looking " coper," who 

 was on the look-out either for a " plant " or a cab 

 horse, and whose capital, judging from his appear- 

 ance, was limited, " I'll give you five guineas for 

 her." " Run her down," said Mr. Tattersall, and I 

 noticed that the lookers-on retired to a respectful 

 distance whilst she was being trotted up and down. 

 Well, 1 thought to myself, here's a hunter-like ani- 

 mal that goes sound, and is not broken-winded, for I 



