PURCHASE OF A HUNTER. 109 



go well over a light, down country, but he will 

 never distinguish himself over a heavy one, as he. 

 will be going in distress, when other horses are 

 going comparati vely at their ease. Horses possess 

 gradations of excellence in this natural qualification 

 or gift, more than in any other, but in it consists 

 the summum bonum in a hunter ; inasmuch as, 

 whatever may be his other good qualities, they are 

 all useless, when the acting parts are, from this 

 cause — namely, deep ground — easily over-fatigued. 

 The w/iter himself has good reason to acknowledge 

 the soundness of this advice in the trial of hunters 

 prior to purchase. He once gave 220 guineas for 

 a horse, from seeing him go well over the Oxford- 

 shire hills, where the ground was sound : when he 

 rode him in the vale of Bicester, in the same county, 

 where the ground was of an opposite nature, he 

 proved to be worth little more than as many shil- 

 lings. With regard to a horse's wind, a purchaser 

 must not judge hastily of that, in a horse not in 

 strong work. Should he not perceive any thing 

 like whistling in his respiration, when he puts him 

 along at a quick pace, and his chest is capacious 

 and deep, and his head well set on, he is not to 

 reject him, in case he appears blown by a short 

 gallop. Condition and work will rectify that ; but 

 many a good hunter has been rejected on this 

 account, by persons not taking into consideration 

 the state of his bodily condition, in a trial of this 

 nature ; and the writer can produce an instance 

 that bears on this point. He purchased a horse 

 from a London dealer, and on his arriv^al in the 



