I HEAR YOU, SIR. 259 



Never suffer myself to be talked into putting up mth 

 what I see and know to be an objection, nor ever make 

 one without good reason. No respectable dealer is ever 

 angry at your objecting to what he knows to be ob- 

 jectionable : on the contrary, he respects your judg- 

 ment, however much he may regret his not having 

 found a flat. If the dealer says he cannot warrant 

 the horse because he has a corn, or a thrush, or some 

 such trivial matter, let no man who is not conversant 

 with such matters touch him : he would probably get 

 a decided screw. Personally, I should not reject such 

 a horse if I liked him in other respects, as I well 

 know, and every horseman knows, hundreds of horses 

 could not be passed as sound by a veterinary surgeon 

 that are just as good or nearly so to any one (but a 

 resj)ectable dealer) as if they were. Under these cir- 

 cumstances I take the ipse dixit of no man. I might 

 be told he " had a slight jack," was " a little rough in 

 both hocks," but " it was natural;" had a "splint," 

 but " it was only on the bone, and did not touch the 

 sinew ; " or many other things of this sort. I listen 

 to all this : but I do not allow my attention to hQ fixed 

 on a grievance that is perhaps in point of fact no 

 grievance at all. The " slight jack," or the " little 

 roughness on both hocks," would certainly induce me 

 to see that there was not one or a couple of whacking 

 spavins : if I found there was, of course that would 

 end the business ; but if I found that in this parti- 

 cular there was not much the matter, or possibly 

 nothing at all the matter, all the dealer could say to 

 persuade me that this was the grievance would have 

 no more effect on me than, if I saw there was a fail- 

 ing, all he could say would have to persuade me there 



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