168 
THE HORSE MAKER. 
has been proverbial for its quacks ever since the days of Dr. 
Solomon. In quacks of his class it is, proportionately, even 
more prolific than its older rival, London. A list of merely 
the leading quacks of Liverpool will almost carry a man 
through the alphabet. — Med, Circular , 4 th Jan,, 1854. 
THE HORSE MAKER. 
We might fill a volume with the performances of this 
worthy, but must perforce despatch him summarily, as others 
are waiting to be limned as soon as we have moved him out 
of the way. This notable personage locates principally in 
the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, though many of his kith 
and kin are to be met with in or near the neighbourhood of 
Smithfield, and in the lowest parts of Westminster. In ap- 
pearance the horse maker has nothing cockneyish or London- 
like about him; even his dialect, though he be a cockney 
born and bred, is in some degree provincial both in idiom and 
accent. His costume is that of the respectable agricultural 
yeoman or small farmer, and is always in neat and tidy trim. 
He affects a rustic gentility and simplicity of behaviour, and 
disarms suspicion by his cheerful, open, loquacious, and un- 
sophisticated manner ; he makes no great parade of himself 
in the markets, never attending, in fact, when his presence 
can be dispensed with. By this means his simulated character 
lasts him the longer, and he is saved from the disagreeable 
necessity of shifting the scene of his labours. His business 
is to purchase horses which, from accident, vice, disease, or 
even old age, are rendered unfit for the service of man, and 
then, by means best known to himself, to metamorphose the 
poor beasts into quiet, plausible, serviceable-looking steeds, 
and to sell them, while yet under the influence of his all- 
potent incantations, to unwary customers. There is hardly a 
disorder horseflesh is heir to, the symptoms of which he can- 
not temporarily banish, by means of drug, knife, cautery, or 
some secret nostrum ; while there is no animal so vicious but 
that he can subdue him for a time to quiet good behaviour. 
By dint of sheers, singeing, currycomb, and brush, under his 
direction, the roughest hide assumes the radient polish of the 
turf ; but the cunning application of ginger or cayenne to the 
jaws, the nostrils, the ears, or elsewhere, the dullest worn out 
hack is stimulated into sprightliness and demonstrations of 
blood and breeding; and the poor honest brutes are com- 
pelled by his arts to play the hypocrite, and to assume virtues 
