60 PEECEPT AND PEACTICE. 



whether you really intend to buy if you can ; the 

 five shillings risked convinces him that you are in 

 earnest, and the questions you ask will further satisfy 

 him not only that such is the case, but that you know 

 what you are talking about and what you want — 

 grooms, as well as others, often find persons who 

 know neither. 



I shall, perhaps, surprise my readers when I say 

 that it is not always advisable to buy horses that have 

 been accustomed to a country similar to the one you 

 intend taking the horse to that you intend to buy ; 

 I say not always, for its being so or not depends on 

 who the person may be, intending to buy. If a man 

 to whom price is no object, I should say by all means 

 buy a horse who has gone over, and gone over well, 

 the kind of country you intend to hunt him in ; if 

 price is an object, endeavour to find some horse 

 among the stud who had no business there, one 

 whose quahfications were not of an order to make 

 him prized in that hunt. 



You will thus get a horse at a very moderate price, 

 with qualifications first-rate for the country you in- 



