CHAPTER XII. 



HOBSE SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS. 



In the days of the road there were not so many horse 

 repositories as now, to which you could resort, and in 

 the course of a week pick up, without difficulty, a 

 large number of horses suitable for coach and post- 

 master's business. Those persons who kept horses, 

 and resided anywhere in the vicinity of one of the 

 main roads, could generally, if having an animal to 

 dispose of, find a purchaser in one of the coach- 

 proprietors, whose principal if not only require- 

 ment was that it should be able to go. It might be 

 one that would rear up, lie down, kick, jib, or bolt, 

 any of which little eccentricities would be overcome 

 after a few days or nights of work in the coach ; and 

 a horse gifted with any of these peculiarities would 

 naturally be bought at a low figure. Coach-horses 

 were bought pretty much as they were sold when 

 a coach was taken off" the road, when they were sold 

 by auction, the only description in the catalogue 



