107 



by one of the best judges of hounds in England upon the flags of his own 

 kennels in Yorkshire. 



There exists a somewhat curious similitude of principle observable 

 in the buying of a horse and buying of a man's wine. Most men think 

 they know all about horses and wine, whereas a really good judge of 

 either, much less of both, is seldom met with. There are many classes of 

 horse and kinds of wine, with various qualities in each sort, the price for 

 the higher being run up at times far beyond their value. Men, although 

 they may not be good judges all round, generally know pretty well what 

 wine and what horse will suit them in the class they generally use, but 

 to do so they must have a correct palate for the one and a correct eye 

 for the other. 



A Master of Hounds, used to buying ready-made 15st. hunters, to 

 carry himself, at from £100 to £200, and 12st. horses to carry his 

 men, at half the money, w^ill acquire an eye for those two particular 

 stamps, and be able to pick out very accurately what he wants ; but 

 ask him to choose the best colt out of a drove of " long tails," or the 

 one which will make the best weight-carrier out of a number of half 

 trained, out-of-condition four-year-olds, and he may be quite at sea. 

 The same man may be quite as much out of his element among a lot of 

 really very high class hunters. He will be lost in admiration of their 

 symmetrical shapes, their even action and perfect manners ; while, if 

 he sees them schooled, he. can at once pick out the best performer. 

 But let him price these horses for the market. How can he tell, when 

 they are all so apparently perfect, which is the one worth £250 and the 

 one worth, maybe, £500 ? But ask Mr. James Daly, Mr. Giles Darcey, 

 Mr. John Widger, or Mr. Edward McDonald to look at them, and 

 they will very soon classify them, simply because their natural eye for 

 form has been trained by long experience of this class of horse. So 

 it is with dealers who buy the yearlings and the youngsters ; no 

 matter how unkempt and untrimmed, they can pick the best. And, 

 perhaps, the man who buys the finished hunter, fit for Rugby or Leicester, 

 may " put his foot in it " when he goes among the soft ones. 



So precisely it is with wine : the man who is accustomed to a certain 

 class will, if he has a correct palate, tell correctly enough which among 

 the lot is the best value ; but if put out of the class to which he 

 is accustomed, he will be in just the same fog as the man among the 

 horses. Still we often hear men accustomed only to beer and whisky 

 pass judgment upon high-class claret and champagne. Even a 

 merchant accustomed only to select wines in their crude state can 

 know nothing about the fine old matured stuff, unless he is in the 

 habit of using it at his own dinner table. 



Since writing the foregoing I read in The Horsehreedcr a practical 

 and sensible article upon choosing a horse, so I reproduce it. 

 Hints on Horses. 



Some men are said to be born with an eye for a horse, some to have an 

 instinctive idea of sliape, but this is the exception, and, as a rule, study is 



