A CLEVER TBICZ. 89 



their folly to themselves. Most of these screws were 

 more or less unsound in their wind, some quite broken- 

 winded, some roarers, others were lame in the shoulder, 

 or had navicular disease : many were as old as " men," 

 but none were spavined, and none had either curbs or 

 splints. There were no visible infirmities worth naming 

 among the whole lot, and the ruse of selling them at a 

 place where there was no room to run them on the 

 stones was only discovered when too late. 



All the badly broken-winded horses were so skilfully 

 " set" that they would have baffled the judgment of a 

 practised hand, if he had pinched the windpipe and thus 

 caused the horses to cough, to enable him to ascertain, 

 by the peculiai sound, whether the wind was right or 

 not, 



