A HUNTING STABLE. 55 



^lear spirit, and if he don't leap, why I don't know 

 what like a leaper should be." 



" Oh ! he must leap, there's no doubt of that, with 

 those legs under him," said Beaufort. "Where did 

 you pick him up, Roberts ?" 



" It was Colonel Fairfax himself picked him up, 

 your grace ; not to say that I should have let him slip, 

 if I'd a had the luck to have 'lighted on him." 



"He's a north country horse, duke," continued 

 Fairfax. "I heard by chance of a good stable to sell 

 down in Yorkshire in October, which had been stable- 

 summered and were in condition, given up in conse- 

 quence of the owner's taking to matrimony on a 

 sudden. So I put myself on the top of the Glasgow 

 mail and ran down myself to look at them. I picked 

 up this horse, and a good chestnut in the corner there ; 

 let one of the men unblanket him and bring him out 

 — he is hardly as fine a horse as this, but he has a 

 good reputation both with the Duke of Cleveland and 

 Lord Harewood ; as well as a brace of neat covert- 

 hacks, at a figure which, though a pretty big one for 

 the lot, brings this horse and the chestnut pretty low." 



"If it brings this horse lower than four hundred, 

 you've made no mistake. If his go is up to his looks, 

 I'll give you five hundred for him any day." 



"Well, it tvas under four, but I don't think I'd take 

 five till I had tried him once or twice." 



"And afterward, I'm sure you wouldn't," put in 

 Roberts. "Here's the chestnut, your grace," he 

 added ; " he's a fine hunter, and a powerful one, and 

 well-bred at that, but he's scarcely equal to the gray, 

 to my notion." 



"He does'nt show quite so much breeding," re- 

 plied the duke, " but he has got blood enough I 

 fancy. A little too close coupled perhaps for our fly- 

 ing country, but he has got stuff enough to send him 

 well through the dirt, and I'll be bound he is a fence) . 



