148 HINTS TO HORSEMEN ; OH, 



being clothed as they are with their muzzles and 

 their contents hanging by their side, shows the dress- 

 ing them to be a matter of some importance, while 

 their boots or leggings, with their knee-caps, indi- 

 cate that a cut knee or hit ancle is considered as a 

 catastrophe of great importance, should it occur ; yet 

 have I seen horses attracting such attention, any one 

 of which would be gladly sold for far less than the 

 hundred I have mentioned. Such horses happen to 

 have a little turn of speed, which gives them a cer- 

 tain value, and a very trifling one, for racing pur- 

 poses, and many of them for any other would be dear 

 at a twenty-pound note, and probably would be 

 gladly sold at such price at the end of the racing 

 season, rather than incur the expense of wintering 

 them. 



It may be said that, in technical terms, ''leather 

 plating," or, in more slang diction, ''leather flap- 

 ping," borders on a low pursuit. I grant it is fre- 

 quently made so by persons who have no other means 

 of support ; but in the man who does it from love of 

 racing, albeit he profits by it, it is only on a par with 



