206 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



severity ; for I consider that unnecessary which 

 could be remedied without any material additional 

 inconvenience or expense, or of perhaps any. 



It is extraordinary what very fallacious ideas 

 many persons entertain as to the different expense 

 of keeping a horse at home or at livery, and also 

 of the profits of a livery-stable-keeper. Taking the 

 price of forage on an average, his profits are much 

 smaller than people imagine ; in fact a man could 

 barely live in London if he confined himself to 

 livery horses. 



People are apt to compare the cost of what a 

 horse would eat in their own stable, and then 

 calculate that nearly all the difference between 

 that and the livery charge is profit to the owner 

 of the stables. It is true a horse can be well fed, 

 .we will say, for twelve shillings a week, and his 

 owner, bargaining by the year, gets him kept at a 



guinea. When we come to calculate that in a 



& 



good situation the rent of a yard perhaps makes 

 the weekly cost of each stall at least half a crown, 

 the weekly wages of the man who has the care 

 of him three shillings a horse more, we have 

 now seventeen and sixpence: then come stable 

 utensils, use of clothing, occasional bandages, head 

 collars, lights, &c. : adding these to seventeen and 

 sixpence, does not leave a fortune. And though 

 I have the " esprit de corps " about me quite strong 

 enough to make me at all times uphold the cha- 



