OUK CAVALKY HOUSES. 223 



tliat they are in regular communication with the best 

 horse-breeders in the United Kingdom, men who breed 

 especially with a view of producing quality, substance, 

 and symmetry, always having regard to constitutional 

 soundness; the weeds are carefully withdrawn, and 

 drafted into the second and third class, to be sold to 

 second and third-rate customers, who will not, or cannot 

 afford to give a first-rate price, and who are always 

 grumbling about the scarcity of good horses. 



There are many foreign emperors, kings, queens, and 

 empresses, field-marshals, generals, and wealthy civi- 

 lians, whose chief delight is the beauty and quality of 

 their horses ; and if they once take a fancy to a particular 

 horse, price is no object to them. We have many noble- 

 men and gentlemen of the right sort in our own little 

 isle, who never make the price a barrier for a really 

 clever "Bank of England animal," the majority of 

 whom are known to the " number one" dealers, who 

 have only to drop a line when they meet with a suitable 

 horse to carry the duke, the marquis, his lordship, or 

 plain Mr. Tally-ho, with his ruddy cheeks, grey whis- 

 kers, stuck-up shirt collar, blue bird's-eye neckerchief, 

 and blue coat with plain metal buttons, whom every 

 first-class horse-dealer numbers among his aristocratic 

 customers ; these know the value of a horse when they 

 see one at a single glance, because they never ride anything 

 else but the best horses that money can purchase. 



Such customers as these are never seen to enter a 

 dealer's yard with a troop of friends (would-be connois- 



