WARRANTY. 479 



meaning of this word, (for example, we eat cod's 

 sounds, from a sound, or a narrow sea,) we will 

 presently endeavour to show what, in law, is con- 

 sidered an unsound horse. 



Then, a warranty of " free from vice," is one of 

 a very ticklish nature. It might be very difficult to 

 prove any real act of vice in a horse, whilst in the 

 possession of the seller ; and, in the next, a horse, 

 from being ill-treated, or alarmed, may become 

 vicious in a week, never having been so before. 

 There was a remarkable instance of this a few years 

 back, in a Cossack horse which had carried General 

 Platoff during the war between Russia and France, 

 and which, when in England, he presented to his 

 late Majesty, George the Fourth, then Prince Re- 

 srent. When first received into the stables of Carl- 

 ton House, he was quiet and tractable in the high- 

 est degree ; but in consequence of his having been 

 ill-treated by one of the grooms, he became so 

 vicious that he could not be approached without 

 danger. " A good word," says the proverb, " will 

 lead an elephant with a hair;" and horses are 

 equally sensible to good or ill usage, and often — as 

 in this case — prepared to resent the latter. Equally 

 liable to objection is the warranty of " quiet in 

 harness," or " a good hunter." The horse war- 

 ranted as the former, may be very quiet on the day 

 he is sold, but, in a week afterwards, from some 

 mismanagement in the driver, from sudden alarm, 

 or from some part of the harness pinching him, he 

 may become a kicker or a runaway. Tlie hunter 

 also may be a good one for one man, and not worth 



