SADDLED WITH A BARGAIN. 245 



recommendation : the owner would probably have be- 

 come tired of them, and would heartily wish their tails 

 had also been dyed. When he purchased them, per- 

 haps not more than one person in five thousand would 

 have liked them ; but now he finds no one will have 

 them at all. Second-hand things of any description 

 sell badly enough ; but if I was to rack my brains for 

 a month to hit upon anything second-hand the most 

 difficult of all others to get rid of, I should certainly 

 say a pair of milk-white horses with pinkish-chestnut 

 manes and tails. Anderson would probably recollect 

 them with many pleasurable feelings : I should ima- 

 gine he would be the only one who would. 



In nearly the commencement of these Hints I stated 

 my firm conviction that no gentleman could make 

 money by horses as a tradesman. I further, in no 

 measured terms, gave my opinion of those who use 

 their position in society as a cloak to their being in 

 fact horse-dealers. This can only last for a time; 

 that is, till they are found out. I have also given it 

 as my impression that a respectable dealer is the best 

 source from which a gentleman can supply himself 

 with horses, and have at the same time allowed that 

 purchasing in this way he will lose by his horses if he 

 wishes to sell them. It might be remarked, from 

 what I have said, that the only inference to be drawn 

 is, that a gentleman must either be a rogue, or lose 

 by all his horses. I do not quite mean this ; but I 

 am afraid it comes very near the truth. It must, 

 however, be recollected, that I allude to gentlemen 

 who are not in the sporting term " horse men," who 

 know little about them, merely have them as necessary 

 appendages to their position in life, and as objects of 

 utility and luxury to which they are accustomed. 



R 3 



