30 HORSES. [chap. ii. 



rnent of visitors to Madeira. The prices, whether for sale or 

 hire, are apparently high ; but it must be considered that the 

 freightage of horses from England, which is the ordinary 

 source of the supply, amounts to £15, and that they are on 

 hand for half the year. The price at present charged for horse 

 lure is thirty dollars (£6 5s.) per month. The most economi- 

 cal plan is to buy your horse on first arriving. His keep will 

 cost you £1 Is. Ad. per month of twenty-eight days, his 

 shoeing 4s. 2d., his bedding 3s. Ad., and his groom £1 5s. — 

 total, £2 3s. lOd. per month ; making a difference between the 

 cost of keeping and hiring (when 8s. Ad. per month to a groom 

 is added to the latter) of £3 19s. 6d. in favour of the former. 

 Of course into the opposite balance you must put the loss on 

 the sale of your horse at the end of the season, as well as the 

 interest on your purchase-money meanwhile; but all this 

 leaves you with a clear gain in favour of purchase. Say you 

 give £25 for a horse on arriving, keep it for six months at 

 a cost of £16 3s., and sell it when you go for £15, allow 

 the purchase-money a value of four per cent., or 10s., then 

 your horse will stand you in £26 13s.; whereas, the cost 

 of hiring for the same period of six months would be 

 £40. Where more horses than one are kept the difference 

 is more than proportionably greater. As one groom does 

 for all, £7 10s. is to be deducted for wages and keep for 

 six months from the expenses of every additional horse ; 

 moreover, the groom does other things for you besides attend- 

 ing to your horse. You are generally advised to take out 

 saddles with you to Madeira ; but in most instances, where 

 you buy, the saddle is sold with the pony, and where 

 you hire, the saddles furnished by the stable-keepers are quite 

 good enough, being almost all English. Those, however, 

 who take saddles find a ready sale for them on leaving the 

 island. 



