PUECnASING HORSES. 73 



badly broken-winded and restive horse for. If he 

 asks this, he is told that the man has a friend, and 

 " the horse, being a good-looking un, would do to 

 draw his cart.'* 



The result usually is, the coper gets the horse at his 

 own price. He is then hid away till his appearance 

 is forgotten, or that appearance so altered that it is 

 next to impossible to recognise him ; then some one 

 else is accommodated with a bargain — nor can this 

 be totally prevented. A man has a right to send 

 his horse to be sold by public auction ; has a right 

 to get his friends to run him up as to the price in 

 the first instance, then to run him down as to his 

 worth in the second, and to deal for him by private 

 sale in the third. Sometimes the man, willing to 

 ease the gentleman of his purchase, pretends to know 

 the former owner of the horse, and mentions some 

 fictitious name and person, to which he adds this 

 encomium : 



** Why, Lord love you ! he would cheat his own 

 father ; I wouldn't take his word for a brass farthing." 

 Probably adding : " Why, he sold me a bhnd'un not 



