299 



weeks, carried me forty miles without drawing bit, 

 and once had a fair day with the fox-hounds ! It will 

 be readily supposed that I should not have thus 

 worked a lame horse, which I was about to sell at 

 the end of the season. Without distrusting the 

 skill of Mr. Field, for whom I have a sincere 

 respect, I place more confidence in Mr. Woodin's 

 opinion, confirmed as it is by my own experience 

 of the mare. Mr. Field was misled by the blemish ; 

 the mare is not lame any where ; and had the only 

 question put to Mr. Field, been as to her capacity 

 for work, 1 should not have lost a purchaser, and 

 the purchaser would not have lost a cheap and 

 very useful horse : but yet I admit that a blemish 

 of this nature, though it is not attended with any 

 lameness, justified Mr. Field in advising that she 

 was an unsound horse, according to the usual 

 acceptation of the term, had I suppressed the 

 fact in giving the warranty, though it may perhaps 

 be doubted whether a curb, being a patent defect, 

 comes within the warranty. 



It would also reduce disputes on horse warranties 

 materially, if special warranties were more frequently 

 given. Such warranties are indeed not uncommon 

 as it is. I have seen many with special exceptions, 

 as of an eye, a cough, a splent, &c. ; nor is there 

 any good reason why any infirmities of this kind, 

 scarcely affecting the price of a horse otherwise 



