CAPTAIN SHABBYHOUNDE 245 



must be obtained by the usual means, and, as a 

 natural consequence also, the usual means must be 

 added to the price of the horse, so that the purchaser 

 by employing such a party is in reality running up his 

 own price. The same sort of thing descends in the 

 scale of life, and the coachman must be propitiated 

 when a new pair of horses arrive, or they will stand 

 a very poor chance of finding favour in his eyes, and 

 the groom will expect a similar compliment on the 

 arrival of a hunter or hack. 



The hero whose name we have placed at the head 

 of this paper, and who is just now entering our hunt- 

 ing field, is an admirable sample of the tribe we have 

 been describing — a gentleman horse-dealer. Captain 

 Shabbyhounde is a man who lives by his wits, and is 

 what is generally called, "up to everything." He can 

 ride a race, ditto a steeple-chase, play billiards, ditto 

 rackets (which by the way he studied in Denman 

 Lodge, as they call the Bench), buy a horse, sell a 

 screw, measure twelve paces, cut the cards, row a 

 match, shoot a ditto, and take the part of a walking 

 gentleman in private theatricals. 



Forty years, five-and-twenty of which have been 

 spent in elbowing, and active intercourse with the 

 world, have tended to polish Shabbyhounde's wits up 

 until he is as keen as a razor. There are few things 

 that he is not up to, or had a turn at, though if his 

 habits have acquired any settled direction it will be 

 for race and steeple-chase riding, billiard playing, and 

 horse dealing. Hunting, it will be seen, we have not 

 enumerated in the catalogue of the Captain's accom- 

 plishments, for to tell the truth, he only hunts as 

 an auxiliary to horse dealing, and we are not desirous 

 of enrolling such a character among its legitimate 

 followers. The Captain's season is summer, or per- 

 haps spring and summer, when the silk jacket and 

 doe skins are in vogue. 



Captain Shabbyhounde has a taste for horses, but 



