BUYING A HORSE 29 



A hackney is far more valuable for the pleasantness of 

 his paces and his safety, good temper and endurance, 

 than for his speed. We rarely want to go more than eight 

 or ten miles in an hour ; and on a journey not more than 

 six or seven. The fast horses, and especially the fast 

 trotters, are not often easy in their paces, and although 

 they may perform very extraordinary feats, are disabled 

 and worthless when the slower horse is in his prime. 



CHAPTER II 



BUYING A HORSE— EXAMINATION FOR 

 PURCHASE 



The better class of horse-dealers are quite as upright 

 and fair in their dealings as wine merchants, auctioneers, 

 advertising jewellers, and a score of dealers in articles of 

 a " fancy" description. This, many will say, is but poor 

 praise ; be it so. It is nearer truth than the senseless 

 outcry about horse-dealers which fills the pages of light- 

 reading periodicals, and points the pencil of the carica- 

 turist. If to-morrow we wanted an animal, such as we 

 shall presently describe, and distrusted our own experience 

 and judgment, we should apply at once to an established 

 dealer, on the same principle as we should to a respectable 

 silversmith, and should not doubt to get fair value in one 

 case as in the other. 



It is a gratifying fact, and we speak from observation 

 and experience, that those tricks and dishonesties which 

 used formerly so extensively and constantly to disgrace 

 the repositories, are now of rare occurrence, if not quite 

 gone down into desuetude ; although, of course, caveat 

 emptor cannot be flung to the winds when one is buying 

 anything, but more especially in such an extremely delicate 

 undertaking as purchasing a horse. The " knock-outs" are 

 now confined to a few of the very needy and characterless 

 cads. All the more respectable members of the trade 

 repudiate the practice as beneath them. Improvement has 

 also given the guinea-hunters the go-by ; and here and 

 there only, a crown or half-crown cad is tipped. Respect- 



