So My First Steeple-chaser, 



patient underwent a course of charges and ^' inflammable iles'* 

 under the hands of a queer, eccentric, but very clever country horse- 

 doctor, who was attached to the stables. I could well believe the 

 coachman when he told me his horse's pedigree : how he had gone 

 lame in training, and no one could find out the seat of the disease j and 

 after the usual vicissitudes in such a horse's career, he had come down 

 to leader in a night coach, where he seemed likely to end his days, 

 unless by some lucky accident his enthusiastic driver should suc- 

 ceed to some property, when he was at once to be released from 

 slavery, and again put into training j " and if only that hind leg 

 would stand, he was to win the Liverpool in a canter." I may add, 

 that amongst his other accomplishments he had carried a whip, was 

 a perfect fencer, and could be ridden by a lady in a packthread. 



There is one good thing when one buys a horse with all his 

 faults — it saves a deal of trouble in examination and no end of lies. 

 This examination is often great humbug, for two-thirds of the 

 buyers who look into a horse's mouth, punch his ribs, pass their 

 hands down the legs, do so only because they have seen others do 

 the same — but as for any idea of how old the horse is, or whether he 

 is sound or not, after such a scrutiny, they are just as wise as they 

 were before. It however gives them an importance in their own 

 eyes at least, for to be considered "horsey" is the height of many a 

 young man's ambition. But don't let any of these unfortunates 

 fancy that the real dealer is deceived by all this : he knows at once 

 the sort of man he has to deal with by the very way in which he 

 walks up to a horse, just as surely as a gunmaker knows at a glance 

 only, by the manner in which a man handles a gun in his shop, 

 whether or not he is a customer with whom he can take liberties. 

 There is only one point to be settled when buying a screw, and that 

 is the price j and as the coachman did not open his mouth too wide 

 (he had given, he told me, ij/. to his brother, who was stud-groom 



to Lord , for the horse, and as he wanted to get a box-coat 



and a new hat out of him, he thought 23 Z. would not be too much) 

 after about five minutes' chafi' — for of all bargains none is so prolific in 

 the latter commodity as one like the present — the bargain was struck. 



