BREEDING OF HUNTERS. 239 



for two of them, but he had set his whole heart on the 

 third. " I always said I would not sell that horse/' 

 were the words in which the bargain was clenched, 

 ' ' and I must keep my word ; but if you'll give me 

 900 guineas for the other two, Fll make you a present 

 Qi him." The purchaser jumped at the offer; and 

 although he found that the gift-horse for whom he 

 ventured so much was a roarer and all but worth- 

 less, the terms of the bargain estopped him from 

 complaining publicly, however much he might tell 

 his grief in private. Mr. Mat Milton was, after all, 

 one of the greatest originals that ever closed a horse 

 bargain ; and the American poet might with justice 

 be supposed to have had him in his eye, when he 

 wrote of a regular " Down Easter" 



" He'd kiss a queen till he raised a blister, 



With his arm round his neck, and his old felt hat on ; 



He'd address a king by the title of Mister, 



And ask him the price of the throne that he sat on." 



We have hinted at the terms of his equestrian in- 

 vitation to the Prince Regent ; but he is said to have 

 been a man of deeds and not of words only to a 

 noble lord, who returned him a horse because he 

 considered it to be a roarer. When his lordship 

 next came to his stables, the subject was renewed 

 pretty warmly. Mat ironically asked him, after mak- 

 ing four horses grunt successively by a sudden blow of 

 the fist, if that was the roaring he meant, and wound 

 up his discourse by giving him a dig below the waist- 

 coat, and an adjuration of " Why you're grunting 

 now hang it you're a roarer yourself be out of the 

 yard with you !" which caused him to fly swiftly. 

 Mat used to profess to give 5 to each hunting- 

 groom, when they returned a horse in good condition 

 at the end of the season, but they had sad work to 

 " draw" him of it. 



The chief buyers of carriage horses at Howden 

 Pair are the Messrs. Collins, Wimbush, Gray, East, 



