204 GLANDERS 



At one of these fairs — Stow — in the Wold in Gloucester- 

 shire, our time growing very short, I was induced to buy 

 a mare, at rather an inferior price, of a man whom I knew 

 to be as big a scoundrel as the fratei'nity could produce, 

 but I did not at all suspect the piece of villany that had 

 been practised on me. Arrived within nine miles of 

 home, the mai'e showed some very suspicious symptoms 

 — so much so, that I dare not send her into the dockyard, 

 as all horses had to pass the inspection of a man appointed 

 by Government before they were admitted ; and, for my 

 o^vvn credit's sake, 1 would not risk this. Had I had her 

 destroyed at once, I should have been spared the ruin 

 that at no distance of time overtook me. I very foolishly 

 sent her to my own private stables, and kept her two 

 or three days ; when such unmistakable proofs of that 

 dire disease, the glanders, manifested themselves, that 

 I had her killed. 



Every precaution was taken, as far as cleansing, Avhite- 

 washing, and fumigating the stable went, to prevent its 

 spreading, as I well knew what a virulent, as well as what 

 a contagious disease it was ; and the summer of that year 

 passed away without any appearance among my other 

 horses of anything like infection. Indeed, I did not 

 occupy this particular stall till the hunting season had 

 commenced, and it was not till November that this 

 alarming disorder reappeared. 



I wejit to meet the Hambledon hounds upon as good a 

 hunter as ever went into a field ; but on its coming on 

 wet, I altered my mind, and rode to the village of 

 Hambledon. On meeting with a farmer I knew, he 

 asked me how it was that I was not with the hounds. 



