274 LOOKING TO RESULTS. 



to be detected and shunned ; and if a man, unac- 

 customed to the thing, avUI go and purchase for him- 

 self, he is likewise certain to be detected, and imposed 

 upon. If I have convinced those of this who were 

 not before aware of it, I shall have the satisfaction of 

 knowing I have done some good. 



I have only as yet supposed men going to reputable 

 dealers : how people may get off in going to those 

 who are not so shall be a furtlier consideration ; and 

 if my Reader will so far honour me, we will perliaps 

 walk together and take a peep into a commission- 

 stable and a public repository — not intending to say 

 anything in general disparagement of either of the 

 last-mentioned places when conducted by men of 

 probity ; but it may do no harm to know and to keep 

 in our recollection what we are exposed to, supposing 

 (of course only ^z^^if barely sup])Oiiing) the owner not 

 to be quite immaculate. 



I left the two Gentlemen (each of whom I have been 

 rude enough to distinguish as Muff and Wide-awake) 

 having purchased their horses — we will now drop the 

 sobriquet^ and in more decent terms designate the 

 non-judge as Mr. A., and the judge as Mr. B., and 

 will suppose each to have had his purchase six weeks, 

 by which time a tolerably fair estimate may be sup- 

 posed to have been formed of their respective worth 

 after being used in a moderate way. We shall thus 

 see how each of these Gentlemen stands so far as re- 

 gards their prospects in a pecuniary point of view — 

 whether they may wish to dispose of their horses 

 again, or keep them. I do not mean to say the con- 

 clusion we shall come to will invariably be the case ; 

 but I will answer for it that to two men (of similar 

 habits to each of these) in nine cases out of ten the 



