" THE EAGLE DOES NOT TAKE FLIES." 303 



one or two they generally succeed in doing, they buy, 

 and of course do not object to their being sound : 

 but they would much prefer buying what they term 

 a " good screw " at ten or twelve pounds, that would 

 be worth sixty or seventy if he was sound, to buying 

 a sound horse at thirty that in ordinary dealing they 

 might expect to sell for forty. It is by screws they 

 live, and why they do so is easily explained. For 

 instance ; a good sort of (what dealers term) trades- 

 man's horse, six years old, sound and a fair goer, is 

 worth we will say forty pounds. This is one of the 

 kind of horses that can be valued as easily as the gig 

 or four-wheel he is destined to draw : take him where 

 you will, he is worth within two pounds, more or less, 

 of that sum : his size, age, looks, and action, will 

 always command about that ; but there is nothing in 

 him to command more : every man who knows a horse 

 from a hand-saw can judge his price ; there is no flat- 

 catching in him. Go to Burford's stables ; I doubt 

 not among his other horses he will show you twenty 

 of this stamp : he must keep some such among others 

 for his customers. But this is not a money-making 

 sort of horse : he can only be sold at a fair profit, 

 like a sheep or a bullock. Now this sort of horse 

 would not do for Rascal-dealer at all : he could not 

 get a LOB out of him : consequently he never buys 

 such (in a fair way at least) : he does, if, as I have 

 shown, he can do some one out of him for fifteen or 

 sixteen pounds, not otherwise. 



There are horses that no man alive can value 

 such as hunters, horses of extraordinary beauty, or 

 horses of extraordinary pretensions as to going. Such 

 horses are worth just what different people choose to 



