PRETTY PICKING. 159 



doing of which I should very probably have got 

 no thanks. I did suggest jobbing his horses. "Oh, 

 he had tried that, but he found the horses looked 

 bad, and had always something the matter with 

 them." I asked if the same coachman fed and 

 drove them. " Yes, he did." I smiled, but said no 

 more than it was odd : but I did not think it odd 

 at all : and if the worthy physician had thought 

 twice, he would have seen the folly of supposing 

 this rogue of a coachman would for a moment 

 tolerate his master's jobbing horses, by w^iich if 

 they were done justice to, coachee could make 

 nothing; whereas, by the other plan, he cleared 

 annually what many a nobleman's son works six 

 hours a day for in a public office. Now had the 

 physician jobbed a coachman with the horses, he 

 would have found he saved, to say the least, 

 150/. a year by the change of his mode of pro- 

 ceeding : but he perseveres in his old plan ; and 

 so he may for me: it is quite useless to take 

 trouble for friends without thanks ; it is folly 

 to do the same thing for acquaintance; but I 

 trust this fact shows how needful a counsellor is 

 to any man in any matter of which he is not 

 himself a competent judge. 



The cost of keep must a good deal depend on 

 the description of horse kept, and the quantum 

 of work he is expected to do. Of the feeding of 

 race-horses I need say but little here. Generally 

 — and, indeed, sometimes injudiciously — the 



