290 CONNOISSEURS. 



only men who never buy a horse but as they do a 

 dinner-service, namely, when the one is broken, or a 

 change of fashion induces them to do so. If a man 

 is known as a connoisseur in pictures, or bronzes, or 

 books, he is at no loss where to find them ; he need 

 not even seek them. The dealers in such articles will 

 take very good care he shall not be ; but, on the con- 

 trary, will wait on Mr. or his Lordship the 



moment they think they have got any thing they can 

 persuade him to buy. So it is with horses. If the 

 Marquess of Anglesey wanted a park-horse or a 

 charger, or the late Lord Sefton a carriage-horse 

 (both as first-rate judges of these different horses as 

 of things that require a more refined taste to be a 

 judge of) these noblemen need not hunt dealers' 

 stables for horses. In the first place, the pad groom 

 or the coachman will soon let it be known in the right 

 quarter that my Lord has room for a horse: the 

 dealers know to a hair what horse will suit each; 

 they know it would be useless to show or send any 

 other, and they further know they must not play 

 tricks here ; the connexion, the being able to say 

 they supply such men, is too great an advantage to 

 risk the loss of; and, though they know they will be 

 paid a liberal price, they also know they will not be 

 paid a ridiculous one. They know, if a horse cannot 

 handle his legs like Taglioni, the Marquess won't ride 

 him ; and, unless his pace and action were first-rate 

 they knew Lord Sefton would not have driven him. 



A dealer requires a good deal of tact to act the 

 best for his own interest with his different customers. 

 With some of these his business is to literally SUIT 

 and please them, that they may say they buy horses 



