242 THE HUNTING FIELD 



were all alike. There are very few horses without 

 something or other that they would be better without, 

 and which a man is obliged to slur over by himself, 

 or servant, if he wishes to get rid of the animal 

 without a sacrifice. It is just this slurring over that 

 constitutes one of the great difficulties of gentlemen 

 dealing. You must have a servant in your confidence 

 — you must, to a certain extent, place yourself in the 

 power of that servant, and where is the gentleman 

 who would like to feel himself under such domina- 

 tion ! Of course, gentlemen must both buy and sell ; 

 it is the buying with a view of selling again to a profit 

 that constitutes the horse-dealer. The best plan is 

 for a man to look upon horses as an article of luxury, 

 for which he must expect to pay something, instead 

 of expecting a profit, and then that man is best off 

 who pays least. It is not worth any gentleman's 

 while, for the sake of a five, ten, or even a fifty pound 

 note, saying anything about a horse that he knows 

 is not borne out by the facts. We have heard men 

 assert that anything is fair in horse dealing, but that 

 is the mere bravado of some notorious cheat, wanting 

 to carry off his delinquencies on a general principle. 

 Lying is never allowed among gentlemen — above all, 

 lying for self-interest. If any one doubts the truth of 

 this position, let him observe the coolness, the shirk- 

 ing, the cutting that attends a man of this description 

 in the hunting field. Instead of the hearty, joyous 

 welcome that greets the legitimate sportsman, there 

 are cold, sour looks and mutterings about cheating 

 scamp, and wonderings who he is come to "do" now. 

 In remote parts there is no scope for this kind of 

 work ; a false deal or two does for a man, and no one 

 will look at his horses after ; and even in London and 

 the metropolitan hunts it is wonderful how soon a 

 man is " blown." In our opinion, gentlemen dealing, 

 with a view to money making, is the most unpromising 

 of all speculations. Some men have a vanity about 



