PROFITS OF LIVERY CONSIDERED. 207 



racter of sportsmen and men fond of horses, they 

 are not absolutely immaculate, and such things 

 have been heard of as livery bills being left un- 

 paid. Only twenty pounds loss of this sort takes 

 a good deal of bringing up out of livery profits. 



It is true the hunting livery-stable-keeper 

 charges a higher rate of livery and his rent is less ; 

 but against this we must consider he has to keep 

 more men for the same number of horses than the 

 London man has, he has the loss of time of his 

 people taking horses to cover, and though some 

 horses are summered at his stables, many are 

 not; so, like Shakspeare's apothecary, he has a 

 "beggarly account of empty boxes" several 

 months in the year. Still I should say he does 

 far better than the London man, of the small- 

 ness of whose profits we may draw an inference 

 from the fact, that there is not, to the best of 

 my knowledge, such an establishment in London 

 as any large one appropriated solely to livery 

 purposes, which unquestionably there would be 

 if the profits were large. And further, I never 

 heard of any one man who had accumulated much 

 money as a bare livery-stable-keeper. As job- 

 masters many have, who only took horses to livery 

 as being better than vacant stalls. 



I can conceive few things so unpleasant as 

 telling persons anything that looks like assuming 

 to oneself superior judgment to theirs. It is never 



