CAPTAIN SHABBYHOUNDE 241 



likely to hear much more hereafter. It is an interest 

 that does not attach to a horse-dealer's transactions, 

 because "dealing" is his trade, and he is supposed 

 to be too wary to be done. 



Mr. Whipend may buy fifty horses without any one 

 troubling his head about any of them; but let Mr. 

 Spoonbill be seen trotting one out, and he will have 

 the whole " town " out, as they say. 



Old John Lawrence, a kind-hearted, if not a very 

 practical writer on horses, exclaims, "Who shall coun- 

 sel a man in the choice of a wife or a horse ! " but if 

 a buyer were to listen to all the hints and suggestions 

 he will have made him, he would stand a good chance 

 of going on foot the rest of his life. In spite of Mr. 

 Lawrence's exclamation, good stout counsellors will 

 never be wanting on the animal side of the question 

 at all events, and the ridiculous thing is, that the 

 lower the figure, the greater the fear on the part of 

 the purchaser. Time was, when we used to talk 

 about a twenty pound horse, just as we did about a 

 twenty shilling note, a guinea hat, a silk umbrella, or 

 any other unimportant thing; but now — thanks to 

 the march of railroads — a twenty pound horse has 

 become an object of considerable importance. People 

 used formerly to talk of "giving a horse away for 

 twenty pounds," just as our friends under the Quad- 

 rant talk of giving one a piping bullfinch for an old 

 coat ; but now twenty pounds is a most difficult sum 

 to realize. People look at a twenty pound horse as 

 if they thought the seller had stolen it. A two 

 hundred pounder is an easier one to sell. 



Gentlemen dealing is at best but a ticklish trade, 

 and we doubt any one being able to pursue it for any 

 length of time, and retain the title of a "gentleman." 

 Every woman has been said to be a separate enigma, 

 and the same may be said of every horse, and yet to 

 hear an ignoramus talk, you would think there was 

 but one article answering to the name — that they 

 16 



