( IS ) 



treJttment adopted ? 71iis would liave answered 

 their purpose better th;ui ail the scurrility of the 

 Epistle. But this they could not do, and hence 

 arose all their abuse. Another gross contradic- 

 tion appears in the note, page 6. The success of 

 Captain Blagrave's system is said to be owing to 

 *' the approbation and celebrity it met with, in 

 «' the Sussex District ;' and from his having 

 *' communicated it to some particular friends ," and 

 yet in page 12, it is ridiculously called a " secret^'' 

 and said not to have been communicated to any 

 one /" indeed, there is no end to such absurdi- 

 ties, and I say again, God defend me from such 

 an advocate. 



A Gentleman, who has distinguished himself 

 by several realbj literary works on Agriculture, 

 &c. (to whom i lent this infamous Epistle, and 

 who was more than half inclined to give Joseph 

 Blagrave, Esq, and I\lr. Goodwin, credit for a 

 something)^ burst into a laugh when he came to 

 the secret mode of shoeing^ and exclaimed, " I see 

 *' now plainly through the business, the whole is a 

 " gag to get money from the credulous ; for who 

 '' but a fool would believe in a secret plan for 

 " shoeing horses in tlie eighteenth century ! ! !" It 

 shews a curious taste in the followers and admirers 

 of the Captain, to select Sussex as the source from 

 which he is to gatlier liis laurels ; of all places on 

 earth this ought to ha^e been the last; for there 

 his success was (to boiTOw a very descriptive 

 phrase from my biographer) almost invariably of 



