THE BLACKSMITH 177 



smiths are as much a distinct class or breed of men as coach- 

 men, sailors, or Jews. To our mind they are a sort of cross 

 between a travelling tinker and a stableman — by Vulcan out 

 of Pitchfork, or something of that sort. They are almost all 

 sportsmen or sporting men — that is to say, they have a turn 

 for everything going, or can turn their hands to everything. 

 They like a hunt, and they like a race ; they like a game at 

 pitch and toss, are great at quoits, can play at cards, dominoes, 

 get up raffles, shoot matches, jump in sacks, bait badgers, and 

 don't care if they go out coursing occasionally. Like the 

 travelling tinker, they generally have a turn for keeping a 

 horse. " Keeping," indeed, we can hardly call it — starving, 

 starving a horse would be nearer the mark. Bullwaist's pony 

 is a sample of that. Its shape is good, but it is long "over- 

 due," as the bankers say, only there is nothing on it to make 

 soup of Yet the poor beast was in the coal cart all yesterday, 

 and was assisting at a moonlight flitting the night before. Now 

 it has seventeen stone, avoirdupois weight, piled upon its back. 

 Bullwaist is a hard taskmaster. He never thinks he can get 

 enough out of a horse. 



The blacksmith's shop is to the country what the saddler's 

 is to the town, the grand emporium of news. It is to the 

 servants what the hair-dresser's is to their masters, or perhaps 

 their mistresses, for we will give our se.x credit for having 

 something else to do than gossip. When the Blacksmith 

 combines the trade of publican as well, it will go hard if he 

 is not acquainted with all the "inns and outs" of the country. 

 It will be odd if he does not know who was at the castle last 

 week, and who is expected next ; nay, we will be bound to 

 say he can tell who supplied the Dorking fowls, and what 

 butcher sent the most beef and mutton. He has a chrono- 

 logical chart in his head of all the kings and queens that have 

 reigned there since the days of his boyhood ; can tell what 

 butler king was most liberal with the beer, and what key- 



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