THE MAKQTTIS'S HOESE. 19 



however, you shall have one about which there shall he 

 no mistake this time. Here, Joe, bring out the Mar- 

 quis. The animal I am going to show you, sir, is one 

 I bought at the sale of the late Marquis of "Waterford, 

 who always made it a rule to buy a good horse when- 

 ever or wherever he saw one, regardless of cost." 



Crack goes the whip, and the horse (a great long- 

 legged, flat-sided, straight- shouldered animal, with a 

 head as big as a Scotch churn) is bounced on to the run 

 with a hop, skip, and a jump, but on no account is he 

 allowed to trot slow and evenly, for that would be the 

 surest way to expose his infirmity, which is a spavin, 

 . e., an enlargement on the inner side of the hock joint. 

 But in this instance the spavin was in its early stage, 

 and the swelling scarcely perceptible ; indeed, none but 

 a practised eye could discern the unnatural stiffness in 

 the hocks, when the horse was in action ; besides, the 

 practised coper continually directed the gentleman's at- 

 tention to the horse's head. 



"Lor!" said he, "how he carries his napper ; look 

 at his great strong shoulders and loins! Carry you 

 with hounds, did you say ?" 



Although the gentleman asked this question, he never 

 jumped a horse the height of a straw in his life. 



""Why, he would carry a castle, and gallop for a man's 

 life ; I wish I had as many acres of good land as he 

 carried the Marquis over stone walls and sod-banks." 



" I hope he is not the same horse that fell with and 

 killed the Marquis/' said the gentleman. 



c2 



