DEALING NOT ALL PROFIT. 211 



Granted: nor can they do themselves justice unless 

 they do so. They give enormous prices for them, 

 much more than people give them credit for; and 

 they are at enormous expenses in order to get them. 

 The travelling expenses of their men and themselves 

 in searching for horses would exceed the credibility 

 of persons unacquainted with the fact ; and without 

 these expenses they could never supply themselves 

 with such horses as are fit for their purpose in suffi- 

 cient numbers. Four years ago I saw ten horses 

 Elmore had bought at a fair, which, where I saw 

 them, 120 miles from home, had then cost him 1000/. 

 He had bought perhaps twenty or thirty others, some 

 at higher, some at lower prices. All these had of 

 course to be travelled home at considerable expense 

 and risk. In travelling these young fresh horses, 

 some of tliem are almost certain to be taken sick, 

 and have to be left on the journey with a man to 

 attend them. Here is additional expense. Some- 

 times a valuable horse gets kicked, or blemished, or 

 otherwise severely injured. Every possible precau- 

 tion is used to prevent accidents ; still they do fre- 

 quently occur. When half a dozen of these young 

 horses are tied together to start in the morning fresh 

 out of the stable, they play all sorts of tricks, kicking, 

 rearing, plunging, throwing each other down : I have 

 often see three or four of them, worth 100 guineas 

 a-piece, all down together. The surprise is, not that 

 accidents should occur, but that they do not occur 

 much oftcner than they do. Supposing the horses 

 arrived at the dealer's stables : the riding-horses have 

 to be rode ; if they are not quite steady, they must 

 be ridden till they are : the harness horses have to 



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