HORSE-STEALING ANECDOTES 257 



Holinslied says, ' he made fifteen pounds of current 

 money towards his charges.' 



In olden times Smithfield was the principal horse 

 mart of London, and, till the cattle market was 

 finally removed from the city, copers of the worst 

 kind congregated there. 



'Monsieur Rosetti says the Arabians have five 

 distinct breeds of horses, and that some of these 

 animals are so sensible as never to sufier themselves 

 to be delivered up to a purchaser until the ceremony 

 has been completed by the seller, of having received 

 a little salt, and a morsel of bread ! We presume 

 this bread must be something like that formerly sold 

 weekly at Smithfield, where it is customary, and 

 almost imperative, to insure " good luck," that the 

 seller should treat the buyer with something more 

 potent and palatable than salt. We have heard of 

 two of these chapmen who invoked good luck by such 

 potent libations to the jolly god that they at length 

 quarrelled on the subject of their several identities ; 

 the original seller fancying himself the buyer, and 

 the real purchaser as stoutly maintaining that he was 

 the seller. Some humane friend to the parties (it 

 seems Smithfield abounded with such), by walking off 

 with both the horse and the purchase-money, ended 

 the dispute, which convinces us that their Baccha- 

 nalian patron must have been offended either by the 

 scantiness or the ill-use of their offerings.' ^ 



^ Blaine's Encydojjccdia of Rural Sports. 



