78 My First Steeple-chaser, 



I do not believe he'd have told a lie to save his life. Mind, I don't 

 always mean to say that he " told the whole truth " on all occasions 5 

 but whatever he did tell you was a fact ; his style of dealing did not 

 require to be pushed by the aid of lies and crooked prevarications. 

 No one ever dreamt that a horse was sound when he had one to 

 sell, and he never wished anyone to think so j but he never was 

 known to deceive a man Avhen he bought a horse for him on com- 

 mission. He was strict enough then about the warranty, which he 

 handed over to the purchaser with the receipt, charged his com- 

 mission, and, as far as he was concerned, the matter was at an end , 

 and I never once heard a man find fault with a horse which had 

 been bought through him. When he had, however, a horse of his 

 own to sell, his style of doing business was this : — '^ I had him of 

 so-and-so, but he's wonderfully improved since I got him" (which 

 was generally the case). "I know nothing about him, mind 3 but 

 it's my opinion, if he only gets into the right hands, and shakes off 

 that lameness, he'll make such a horse as we have not had in our 

 county for many a day. Now you know as much about him as I 

 do. They do tell me he's got by so-and-so, and that looks likely 

 enough. Thirty pounds is his price, with all his faults j if he was 

 sound, I should ask you 100/. Why, his very looks would sell him, 

 if he were lame all round." And he was considered such a rare 

 judge of what a horse really was and might be made, tliat I don't 

 know whether many a man did not rather prefer buying one that 

 was a little screwy out of his hands in preference to a sound one 

 from a regular dealer. Blood and bone were what he most looked 

 at. i^.i was his lowest height, and 20/. the highest price that he 

 gave, except on extraordinary occasions. He had a perfect horror 

 of a fast trotter j his pace was always a sling canter along the green 

 turf by tlie roadside, and although no one was fonder of setting a 

 parcel of young farmers larking across his own farm, he detested it 

 in the field, unless a horse was sure to be sold by it ; and his standing 

 motto to the young ones used to be, that he never knew a horse 

 have one jump too many left in him at the end of a long run. A 

 country racecourse was his delight, especially when, as was generally 



