34 DRIVING AS I FOUND IT. 



TATTERSALLS. 



If any one imagines from what I have previously TVTit- 

 ten on the subject of horse dealers that I wish either to 

 consider or intend to represent horse dealers as men in 

 whom we may place perfect confidence, the fault must be 

 attributed to my peculiarity of expression and not to any 

 intention of mine, as I consider them in no such light. 

 Confidence may be reposed in many dealers in the same 

 way as dealers in wine or in pictures. If a man, how- 

 ever, is not a judge, and is not posted, and goes to either 

 making his o^ti purchases, he is certain to be more or 

 less taken in ; that is to say, he will not get the best value 

 for his money. If first-rate dealers they wiU not venture 

 to give you an absolutely unsound horse in the face of a 

 warranty to the contrary, a decidedly pricked wine for 

 sound, or a pirated copy for a genuine picture, but you 

 will be pretty sure to get an inferior horse or wine or 

 painting. They are tradesmen, and are in business to 

 make money, and, while they do not dare to do anything 

 which is absolutely dishonest, their consciences are some- 

 thing like that of the old Irish lawyer who considere d th at 

 there was nothing dishonorable that was not contrary 



