If my reader has by this time mounted himself 

 to his satisfaction, he will be dismayed to learn, 

 that he has yet much to do in the way of precau- 

 tion, before he can hug himself in his purchase. 



A friendly critic in the Old Sporting Magazine 

 has humorously compared me to Accum, the cele- 

 brated chemist, of " death-in-the-pot" reputation. 

 I will take this opportunity of setting myself right 

 in this matter. I have never said that a sound 

 horse is unattainable in the market ; but merely 

 that animals of this description do not often find 

 their way into it. My object has been to enable 

 the inexperienced to form some judgment for them- 

 selves upon the merits of such horses as they are 

 most likely to find there, and especially to guard 

 them against the common error of allowing their 

 j udgment to be warped by the amount of the price 

 demanded. In prosecuting this object, it has been 



