GETTING IN. 233 



infatuated by the performance, that nothing I could 

 say prevented his buying the brute at a hundred and 

 fifty guineas ; and if he intended to keep him to do 

 nothing but jump a brick-wall for the entertainment of 

 his friends, he was worth the money ; but for any other 

 earthly purpose, he was not worth twenty pounds, as 

 nothing else could he do with satisfaction to any one 

 who rode him. I met my friend a few weeks after- 

 wards riding the beast, and expressed my surprise at 

 his so doing ; but he made a very sensible reply, 

 which silenced me at once : " My dear fellow, I am 

 not a very rich man : I have found him quite as bad 

 as you told me I should, but I cannot afford to lose 

 a hundred guineas, which I must do at the least if I 

 determine at once to sell him : so I ride the wretch 

 till I can find as great a fool as myself to buy him." 

 Fortunately he hunted about till he did find the fool 

 he wanted, and got off with no farther loss than the 

 keep of the animal for a few months. 



Having mentioned the folly of my friend, and the 

 risk he ran of losing a considerable sum by pleasing 

 his fancy, it is but fair I should mention an instance 

 of my own, who, being some years his senior, ought 

 to have known better. 1 went to see a stud of horses 

 for sale at Tattersall's : I perceived that one horse 

 among the stud seemed to attract very great atten- 

 tion, and this I thought was easily accounted for 

 from his being one of the finest horses I think I ever 

 saw. But I found another cause for this general 

 attraction, when I heard he was not only beyond any 

 competition the widest jumper in the stud, but known 

 to be the widest brook or drain-jumper in Lincoln- 

 shire, where he had been hunted. He was put up 

 with the rest, and I bought him at a hundred 



