490 HORSE-DEALING. 



be blemished, or how imperfect soever may be his 

 texture. These are matters that concern only the 

 buyer, who of course can see them previous to pur- 

 chase ; and it might perhaps surprise persons un- 

 acquainted with sporting affairs, to walk through 

 the various hunting-studs of Great Britain, with 

 reference to these points. He would see in horses, 

 whose owners value them highly, not only every 

 deformity of texture, such as twisted legs, distorted 

 spine, hips shotten, defective eyes, confirmed 

 roarers, (one of which we will name, viz., the late 

 General Sir Charles Wardens famous hunter Star^ 

 for which he refused the enormous sum of six hun- 

 dred guineas,) crib-biters, and wind-suckers ; horses 

 with curby hocks, with bone, bog, and blood spa- 

 vins, with thorough-pin, with ring bone, with 

 string halt, with thrush or thrushes, with splents, 

 with corns, with windgalls, with chronic cough, 

 and lastly, though frequently, w^ith one leg quite 

 as laro^e again as its fellow ; and he might still see 

 such horses " performing,'' as Mr. Mavor expresses 

 it, " the ordinary (and, we may add, extraordi- 

 nary) duties to which they may be subjected,'' 

 quite as well as if they were free from such defects ; 

 or, in his own words, as if they had been " perfect 

 in structure and perfect in function." Still, as 

 some of these diseases might sooner or later either 

 destroy the animal — at all events, considerably 

 lessen his value — we consider a warranty of sound- 

 ness could not be given to a horse with defective 

 eye or eyes, or affected with chronic cough, and 

 perhaps with corns ; but we doubt whether an 



