PAYING FOR THE WHISTLE. 125 



A man sitaated as I have supposed one, luckily 

 for liim, to be, namely, having no occasion to 

 baulk his wished from a regard to price, may 

 make himself moderately secure in getting a truly 

 valuable hunter out of a stud on sale at Tatter- 

 salPs. But he must bear in mind that in pur- 

 chasing there, unless he personally knows the 

 horses, or some one who does, he most positivelv, 

 in the full sense of the term, buys a " pig in a 

 poke : " his only plan, if he intends purchasing 

 there, is to find some one in whose judgment and 

 integrity he can rely, who has seen all the stud in 

 their work during the season, and if he knows the 

 kind of horse that -s^dll suit the purchaser he will 

 point him out; and, probably, what is wanted 

 will be got. But here the price must not be an 

 object; for, if the horse is a desirable one, there 

 will be sure to be plenty of men mth long purses 

 who can afford to treat themselves to that for 

 which they have a fancy, not at the price they 

 consider the horse to be worth as a marketable 

 commodity, but at a price they choose to give 

 rather than lose that they wish for : the same 

 horse, if not liked by the purchaser, though 

 bought at four hundi^ed, if sent back and resold 

 a month afterwards, would very probably not 

 realise half the money : the absolute value of a 

 himter can, therefore, never be ascertained. 



We will now look at the affair in a different 



