COUKTKY EEPOSE AND FKIENDS. 61 



work. I have no doubt your knowledge of breeding is 

 much superior to mine, as I never raised a colt in my 

 life, and though nearly a score of years your senior, pre- 

 sume that your country life ha's given you facilities for 

 observation, tenfold greater than could be enjoyed by one 

 spending his days on a track near this great metropolis, 

 which throws its shadow over what should be country, and 

 requires quite a journey ere one can feel that he is entirely 

 free from city air. It has been a cherished idea with me, 

 that the time would come when I should own a farm, 

 where I could retire in the evening of life solaced with 

 the quiet joys a dweller in the country has to be contented 

 with, but I have been too long acquiring the means that 

 would enable me to fix myself satisfactorily. For a man of 

 my age to form new habits, acquire new friends, change my 

 whole manner of life, I am of opinion it is too late. It is 

 true, my lifelong companions, the horses, could be re- 

 tained, but ardent as I am in my affections for them, I 

 could not be in the stable all the while. Had I a family, 

 the case would be different. A wife to share my joys and 

 griefs, to solace me in one and make the other doubly en- 

 joyable, with children to watch over and establish, then 

 any place would be cheerful ; but, as with the farm, I 

 waited too long, till the time for connubial felicity had 

 also passed. 



From my connection with horses I have made friends 

 that honor me by .their friendship ; men of strict in- 

 tegrity, who never think of a mean deed much less of 

 doing one, whose fondness for the sports of the turf can 

 not be destroyed by the rascality of those who would 

 be rascals the same in any position of life they might be 

 placed, and who bring the manly sport in so much dis- 

 credit, that it takes a good deal of nerve in those men 

 placed high, in social position, the fruits of large means 

 and well directed talent, to acknowledge their connection 



