MISTAKEN MOTIVES. 387 



truly sorry for it : I am only giving my opinion, I 

 give it honestly and to the best of my judgment ; I 

 respect all fox-hunters, and if I was to find a fox- 

 hunting soul in a Brahmin, 1 would " grapple him 

 to my heart Avith hooks of steel" instead of iron: so 

 as what I now give as an opinion may meet the eyes 

 of other fox-hunters as well as those of my Irish 

 friends, I give it as impartially as I can. 



I have been asked one question by many here that 

 at first sounds like a poser. " If our horses are so 

 slow, why do your English dealers buy up our 

 hunters, and send them into Leicestershire :" my reply 

 has been, and now is : " Our dealers do not buy Irish 

 hunters to send into Leicestershire, nor with the 

 generality of the horses they purchase in this country 

 have they Leicestershire or any other shire in their 

 heads : they buy here at prices that they know the 

 horses will command in England for hackneys or 

 harness horses, and for hunters in some countries. 

 Such men as Biggs, Hewitt, and Hunter, Avhen they 

 hear of a choice one, do purchase him with an eye to 

 his being also a first-rater in England, and when 

 they do find such an one, he is worth five hundred ; 

 but then such an one is a trump card, not only a 

 trump, but the ace, and such horses are among Irish 

 hunters in about the same proportions as the ace to 

 the other cards." So much for the idea of our dealers 

 buying up Irish horses for Leicestershire. 



I have also been told that a horse that belonged to 

 a Mr. Somebody here had been taken into Leicester- 

 shire, and that large sums had been refused for him 

 there ; doubtless, for among the host of horses sent 

 over from this country, it would be very extraordinary 



indeed, if some were not " out-and-outers," even in 



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