ALTERATIONS NOT ALWAYS IMPROVEMENTS. 27 



So it is with horses ; almost all of them will 

 improve on additional care; but every one will 

 lose in condition, and consequently in value, by 

 a want of that care to which they have been 

 accustomed. If a man wants a horse to stand 

 heat and cold, wet and dry, three or four sweats 

 a-day, with permission to clean himself against 

 a post, nothing but a country butcher's hack 

 would do it. If, not intending to use a horse 

 thus unfairly, he wants a quick buggy horse that 

 can step over his seven miles into town in about 

 thirty minutes, go back in the evening, and do 

 this, we will say, five times a-week, and keep 

 in condition, he must get one that has been used 

 to it, or he must bring him to it by slow degrees. 



One of the best buggy horses I ever had I 

 bought of a Whitechapel carcass butcher, merely 

 from seeing him come into town, certainly at 

 the rate of sixteen miles an hour, with a heavy 

 man and two calves in the cart ; but I gave 

 eio-hty-five guineas for him, and the good butcher 

 showed me two other nags, nearly as clever, and 

 in as fine condition as hunters. He prided him- 

 self much on this; in fact they could not be 

 otherwise, for, partly from good judgment, and 

 partly from the nature of his business, his horses 

 had the three great promoters of condition — good 

 care, plenty of corn, and fast work. 



Now if any man bought one of these horses. 



