58 



excrescences all over ; thus my treasure that had been 

 taken care of at such trouble and expense during his 

 minority, was fast becoming Hke his once much 

 admired sire, despite bandages, and the never having 

 more than ten stone on his back, incliiding saddle. 

 He cost me, with keep, &c. £.115 before I ever 

 mounted him, and after sixteen months of walking 

 and very gentle trotting exercise I sold him for J£.17, 

 full J6.10 more than he was worth, though his upper 

 build, colour, and all else was indisputably correct. 

 That was not the worst of it. The affair became 

 known; I was laughed at, twice called a muff, and 

 had to resign my appointment as chief of the 

 amateurs ; the consequence has been that whereas 

 formerly I got twenty shillings for every copy of my 

 Griffin's Aide-de-Camp, I am now forced to sell these 

 most instructive Letters for less than twenty pence. 

 I relate the whole story here because Colonel Back- 

 gammon wormed it out of the under ostler at my 

 manufactory, by giving him half-a-crown, and he then 

 shabbily called upon his partner. Count Garniture, for 

 half of his lay out, or one shilling and threepence, for 

 the information. Take warning, and attend to the 

 poetical distich on this head in Letter II. on 

 page 37. 



Travelling into other regions we alight on different 



