FAIR RETALIATION. 181 



hunt. He is particularly pleasant to ride, very 

 safe, and handy at fences, goes a fair pace, and 

 will go on till nightfall. But, like the brown 

 horse, he is not as fast as I like them here, and 

 he does not like wide water: independent of 

 which, he is a size less than I usually have them. 

 I should say in Surrey he would be perfect ; and 

 I will take 100/." 



" Caveat emptor," " ne crede," and many other 

 trite quotations, are things very useful to bear in 

 mind when purchasing, but with very timid or 

 very suspicious persons are very apt to lead them 

 into error, by inducing them to turn a deaf ear to 

 all the seller says of his own property. That 

 every man may be apt to sound the praises and 

 soften off the failings of his own, is natural 

 enough ; how far this is done, of course depends 

 on the conscience and respectability of the man. 

 To show that we should not always reject the 

 recommendation of a seller, I will mention an 

 anecdote of Beardsworth, when he had the large 

 repository at Birmingham. 



A gentleman came to him saying that he was 

 authorised to mention a friend's name who assured 

 him that on his doing so Beardsworth would 

 recommend him a good buggy-horse : the little 

 man showed him two, either of which he said 

 was capital in single harness ; the customer's 

 suspicious disposition took alarm at the strength 



N 3 



