78 CONFESSIONS OF A HORSE DEALER. 



I can refer you to the gentleman who bought him in New 

 York ; he was sold to settle a dispute, and the gentle- 

 man bought him on speculation, and me and my brothers 

 bought him the day after he landed, from the same gen- 

 tleman, who is over on a visit to Liverpool/' said the 

 coper. 



The cob was really a good and sound animal, and an 

 extraordinary trotter, and, independent of his trotting 

 qualities, was worth 40 or 50 for a gentleman's riding 



hack. Mr. S is by no means a bad judge of horses, 



and he knew after a careful examination that he 

 should not be wide of the mark to give a hundred for 

 him, more especially as he could bring him out on the 

 sly, and astonish some of his trotting friends in Man- 

 chester. For money is not so much an object with the 

 merchants there, when they wish to gratify any particu- 

 lar hobby. I know a timber merchant in Manchester, 

 who (five years ago) gave three hundred guineas for a 

 trotting horse, a chestnut, and yet this gentleman (Mr. 

 Kearsley) never would match him for a shilling, he kept 

 him solely as a hobby. An ex-mayor gave one hundred and 

 twenty pounds for a bay horse, bought at Eotherham fair 

 by a Derbyshire dealer in 1853 for eighteen sovereigns; 

 the horse was then six years old, but it never was known 

 up to this period that he was more than an average goer. 

 I rode him myself the first time, when he covered a 

 mile in three minutes and a half! the second time he 

 was ridden by a friend of mine, and he covered the same 

 ground in three minutes and ten seconds. I rode him 



