Buy or Jon. 497 



,0h, never mind, Barker; I didn't know.' Know what? The sacred mysteries of an English 

 stud. That the horses are choking with food till it bursts out in disease. That their chests 

 and consequently their fore-legs are so affected by being pampered that they cannot do the 

 slightest work with impunity. That the stables are kept so hot that it costs a fatal cough to 

 take the beast outside it." 



JOBBING. 



In London, at any rate, ladies will find it more economical, and saving an immense 

 amount of trouble, to get everything except the livery or box-coat of the coachman. 



The following figures were furnished in reply to inquiries put to one of the most respectable 

 firms in Belgravia, and there are competent job-masters to be found in every quarter of London 

 who are also prepared, when the season is over, to find horses for country use at a considerable 

 reduction on these prices. 



A pair of horses, with shoeing and forage, by the year 19° guineas 



Without forage 1°° „ 



By the month, in the season ditto ditto 28 „ 



Without forage ... -° » 



A pair of horses, harness, brougham, forage, shoeing, and a London coach- 

 man, by the year ... ... ... ... ... ... •■■ •■• 3' 5 " 



A single horse, with foiage, shoeing, S:c., by the year 100 „ 



Without forage, &c. ... ... ... ... ••■ ••• 5° » 



A horse, harness, brougham, coachman, forage, shoeing, &:c., by the year 210 „ 



Everything to look like a private equipage, with monogram or crest if desired ; hirer to 

 find livery. 



Job-masters undertake to supply the place of a sick or lame horse with another: that is 

 to say, where you deal zvith a man ivho has a large siiid you are always sure of not bemg 

 without a horse longer than is required to make the exchange. 



The drawbacks of the jobbing system are that you cannot absolutely secure the class of 

 horse, the colour of horse, or the sort of action you prefer ; you must take what the job- 

 master has got, and cannot expect, if you use only one or one pair of horses, to be as well 

 served as if you took several pair for the season. 



Job-masters make it a point to understand their customers' habits. They send much 

 better horses to those who use them for two or three hours' steady slow exercise only than 

 to those who keep them out late at night and early in the morning, or who insist on fast 

 driving, and taking excursions to the very limit of the contract— in London, usually seven 

 miles from Charing Cross. 



On the other side, if you are fortunate enough to possess one or a pair of sound seasoned 

 horses of your own, that are never, in dealer's phrase, " sick or sorry," they may last you three, 

 five, or ten years. Even then, if full-sized, and somewhat stale, but not actually lame, they 

 will sell or let for Gomething considerable. A celebrated job-master in Mayfair had, a few 

 years ago, a pair of blood barouche horses of the finest action, which were respectively 

 nineteen and twenty years old, let in the season at the highest price. 



Thus, the horse that cost you £?>0 to buy would cost you to job about ;^iSO in three 

 years. It is, in fact, a case between insuring and taking the ribk on yourself The lower 

 the price of the horses you are contented to use, the more the calculation is in favour of 

 purchasing against jobbing. But ladies who are obliged to trust entirely to servants should 

 always job, if within five miles of a job-master. 

 L L L 



