TO MR. HORSBURGH. 
613 
nine months (since January, 1849), he has been regularly at 
work, free from lameness. The statements that he “ was 
unable to rise,” had the skin “ destroyed on all the promi- 
nent parts,” and “had to be slung,” are fabulous embel- 
lishments, introduced by a false taste for “ lying wonders” 
pervading the mind of that envious man, poor Mr. Hors- 
burgh. I assert, and challenge proof to the contrary, that 
the horse never did lie down from pain and fever following 
the operation, never had sloughing of the skin, and never 
was slung. 
We have next a dissertation, as misplaced as it is mali- 
cious, on families and persons, including the Marquis of 
Dalhousie, Earl of Zetland, and Mr. and 'Mrs. Main. The 
animosity and bad taste displayed herein are too transparent 
to deceive your readers ; so to facts again. 
There is not any Sairg’s bazaar in Edinburgh, making it 
self-evident that Mr. Main could not have purchased a horse 
at a place which neither has, nor ever had any existence. 
Nor yet did Mr. Main purchase the horse from the Earl of 
Zetland. Mr. Main, too, instead of being “ farm manager,” 
is steward to the Earl of Dalhousie, and is a gentleman of 
high intelligence, education, and respectability. Mr. Hors- 
burgh did fire this horse for spavin ; but the operation pro- 
duced no good effects, for the lameness continued as before ; 
and I positively state that the horse never got sound while 
under Mr. Horsburgh’s care, though doctored by him to the 
tune of £5. The result of this and other causes of dissatis- 
faction felt by Mr. Main, was the dismissal of Mr. Hors- 
burgh from the Marquis’s practice. With that rage for 
writing (such as it is) so characteristic of Mr. Horsburgh, 
he wrote to the Marquis in India, stating his grievances ; the 
shrewd nobleman, however, returned our friend’s epistle 
through his law agent to Mr. Main, with orders to bestow 
upon it “ no notice .” Since Mr. Horsburgh’s dismissal I 
have had the Marquis’s practice, and was required to treat 
the case in question. I can assert that the horse had not 
“ strains of the flexor tendons of the off hind leg,” but was 
still lame, as he had been all along, from bone spavin. I in- 
serted setons and applied other treatment, but never “punched 
three times,” nor did any one else. I leave you to judge of 
the comparative amount of doctoring the horse underwent at 
our hands, when I state that for attending two other horses, 
a cow , and a dog , my whole account was £4 175. 6d . ; while 
for attending this one lame horse onbj> Mr. Horsburgh charged, 
as has been said, £5. 
Now, a word or two in regard to “ punching off” spavins. 
