Horse Dealers Described. 185 



to be very curious ; at the present day the tide of opinion is rather turning towards discount for 

 cash payments. A late noble patron of the turf and everything that was expensive, owed a large 

 sum to an eminent firm of horse auctioneers for the purchase of yearlings. When his lordship sold 

 a large stud of hunters, under the hammer of the same firm, he was very much surprised that he 

 did not receive a cheque for the sale-money, and was both astonished and indignant when reminded 

 that, even after deducting the proceeds of the hunting stud, there was still a considerable balance 

 on the wrong side against him. 



The advantages of buying from a first-class dealer are considerable. In the first place there 

 is the opportunity, worth at least ten per cent, of the purchase-money, of a full trial ; then there is 

 a warranty of soundness and freedom from vice ; and, finally, the opportunity of changing if the 

 animal does not suit, although this arrangement of course involves some additional cost. Con- 

 sequently, it becomes rather expensive to people who " never are but always to be blest," who 

 never know their own minds, or are constantly seeking an ideal and impossible horse — 



" The faultless monster that the world ne'er saw." 



The thirteenth Duke of Norfolk was showing his agent, a plain, blunt man, his last acquisition 

 in hacks. "Very nice indeed, my lord, and he ought to be, for he cost your Grace a thousand 



pounds." "A thousand pounds!" the duke incredulously repeated. Upon which Mr. Y 



proceeded to prove how the original purchase at two hundred and fifty pounds had within twelve 

 months grown by successive chops and changes to the four figures named. 



There are also some disadvantages in purchasing from a dealer's stables, for which a novice 

 must be prepared, amongst others, that nine horses out of ten never look so well anywhere as in 

 dealers' condition in a dealer's yard, resplendent with bright red sand. The horses are so fat, round, 

 and sleek ; they are bedded up to their knees in beautiful clean straw ; the grooms are so neat, 

 silent, and attentive ; the break-men or riding grooms such masters of their arts ; the whole 

 inise en scene so perfect, that the leading actor, the horse, never again appears to such advantage. 

 Add to these attractions the astounding eloquence of the salesman, by which no one but a deaf 

 man could be entirely unaffected. 



But it must always be remembered that there are " horse-dealers and horse-dealers " of 

 divers grades, including, the most dangerous of all, the gentleman who has seen better days, 

 and the professional coper, whose trade it is to look out for unsound horses of splendid form 

 and action, for the benefit of the large crop of conceited fools to be found every day in a 

 great city; that while there are members of the trade whose word may be as safely taken as 

 that of the bankers with whom they deal, there are many with very little capital, credit, or 

 character, yet so clever that they only require honesty to make a permanent instead of a 

 precarious livelihood. 



Although London attracts, in harness-horses and finished park hacks, as in almost every- 

 thing else, the best and most expensive, especially in harness, there are establishments in the 

 country only second, if second, to the leading London firms. Every hunting county supports 

 at least one local celebrity. Some dealers only purchase horses at least five years old which 

 have been partly broken, others make a point of securing from the breeders every promising 

 colt, and regularly fill their stables in the autumn with four-year-olds to be prepared for sale 

 in the spring. 



Men of established fortune and position have their horse-dealer just as they have their 

 tailor and their bootmaker. This tradesman is always on the watch to secure the class of animals 

 his patron requires. People of moderate means cannot afford so great a luxury. The man who 

 Y 



