?52 NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 



Nimrod. \ he temperate with hounds ! 



Servant. A child may ride him, sir. 



Nimrod. Why put that martingal on him ? 



Servant. Master likes it, sir ; no sort of occasion for it. 



Nimrod. What made him stop and kick with you on the 

 road ? 



Servant. Full of play, sir ; he saw that there donkey. (I saw- 

 no donkey.) 



Nimrod. Is he for sale ? 



Servant. Yes, sir. 



Nimrod. His price ? 



Servant. A hundred guineas. 



Nimrod. Warranted sound ? 



Servant. Yes, sir. 



Nimrod. And good-tempered ? 



Servant. Yes, sir. 



A gentleman coming up at the moment, with whom I entered 

 into conversation, our parley ended, and I dropped astern again. 

 Very shortly afterwards, however, I saw my old acquaintance 

 once more at his " play," but the man managed him well, and 

 he went on. Getting alongside him a second time, the parley 

 was resumed. 



Nimrod. So you have had another game zkplay. 



Servant. Yes, sir ; he seed that there windmill. (Now there 

 was a windmill, and going at a merry pace too, but it was rather 

 better than half a mile distant, at an acute angle.) 



Nimrod. Pray, did I not see this horse lately at Dunse, with, 

 Lord Elcho's hounds ? 



Servant. Mayhap you might, sir. 



Now there is a saying amongst horse-dealers this horse be- 

 longed to one of the fraternity and one by no means at variance 

 with the soundest logic of the schools namely, " If we buy the 

 devil, we must sell the devil ;" but who was the purchaser of this 

 " devil" I know not. There may be, however, some who have 

 not in their " mind's eye" a just comprehension of the sort of 

 person who was on this occasion employed to prove the value of 

 this logical argument. In other words, they may have never re- 

 marked the peculiar stamp and character of a horse-dealer's man,, 

 of whom I will now give a sketch, taken on the day I am speak- 

 ing of, from the life : 



He was a shortish man, not heavy of course, and what there 

 was of him lay chiefly in his carcass, for of legs he had anything, 

 but the Irishman's share. He had bloated cheeks and a round 

 face, which perhaps looked rounder than it really was, by the 

 help of a sort of skirruning-dish-looking hat ; his nose had every 



