46 HOUSES AND HOUNDS. 



or cadgers, until the little strength they have remaining is 

 whipped out of them, and they are then consigned to the 

 knacker's hands ; surely, the paltry few pounds for which an 

 old horse may be sold, should be no consideration with their 

 great and wealthy owners, and it would be more to their credit 

 to have their old servants shot at once, than expose them so 

 remorselessly to certain drudgery, and a lingering death. 



To prove how old horses may be abused, I may state an 

 instance which occurred under my own observation ; I had an 

 old hunter, no particular favourite, one which had been ridden, 

 however, several seasons by the second whi])per-in, but having 

 become too slow for his work, my first whipper-in told me he 

 could get him a good place for life, with an old farmer who 

 wished much to have him, and promised to take every care of 

 him, merely requiring him to ride about tlie farm ; upon this 

 assurance, and knowing something of the man, I consented to 

 let him go, — but guess my astonisliment when, a few months 

 afterwards, npon returning home, this identical old horse was 

 put into my carriage (and a heavy one it was,) to drag me home 

 a distance of fourteen miles : I could scarcely believe it possible, 

 but there he certainly was. ' This was the only pair of horses I 

 could procure, and he was therefore obliged to go the journey, 

 which I was determined should be his last. Passing through 

 the town where his present owner lived, I stopped and made 

 inquiries how he could have come into his possession ; the story 

 was soon told: the farmer did not like him, and had there- 

 fore sold him to the postmaster. Having explained to this man 

 the circumstances under which he had left my stables, I asked 

 the i)rice he had given for him, which was ten pounds ; this 

 sum I immediately tendered to him, and the old horse never 

 left my premises again. 



This case may operate as a caution to others, not to trust to 

 their servants, or allow them to have any casting vote, as to the 

 fate of an old horse. There is an old story, which has probably 

 been heard by many of my readers, but it is so approjoriate to 

 the subject, that I may be pardoned for introducing it at this 

 juncture. It was the practice of Charles, Duke of Calabria, to 

 sit in council at Naples with his ministers on certain days, to 

 hear all general complaints ; and that no persons, however humble, 

 should be denied admittance to his presence, a wire was run 

 across the court to the outside entrance, which, when pulled, 

 gave the Duke an opportunity of knowing that some petitioner 

 had applied for admission. Tliere was an old baron who, being 

 tired of his horse, then grown stale in his service, had ordered 

 him to be turned out of his stable, to obtain a livelihood how 



