56 
SHAVING A HORSE. 
was purchasing a horse for the use of his trumpeter. The animal 
offered was a handsome one, and neither the officer, who was an 
excellent jockey, nor any one present, could see any imperfection 
in wind or limb. A person happened then to pass, who was asked 
to give his opinion: this man was called Blind Willie, who drove 
a small trade of horses and cattle; and what seemed as extra¬ 
ordinary, in watches, notwithstanding his having been born blind. 
He was accounted to possess a rare judgment in these subjects 
of traffic. So soon as he had examined the horse in question, 
he immediately pronounced it to have something of his own com¬ 
plaint; and in plain words stated it to be blind, or verging upon 
that imperfection; which was found to be the case upon close ex¬ 
amination. None present had suspected this fault in the animal, 
which is not wonderful, considering that it may frequently exist 
without any appearance in the organ affected. Blind Willie 
being asked how he made a discovery imperceptible to so many 
gentlemen who had their eyesight, explained that, after feeling 
the horse’s limbs, he laid one hand on its heart, and drew the 
other briskly across the animal’s eyes ; when finding no increase 
of pulsation in consequence of the latter motion, he had come to 
the conclusion that the horse must be blind .—Notes to the Wa- 
verley Novels. 
Shaving a Horse. 
A gentleman, named Wells, was summoned before the 
Commissioners by Thomas Field, a hair-dresser, for the sum of 
thirty shillings, the price demanded by the plaintiff for shaving 
a horse. 
The plaintiff swore that the defendant brought to him a horse 
to be shaved, for the purpose of “ shewing a new coat upon the 
animal.” The horse had been attempted to be shaved by the 
defendant, on part of the stern, but, from want of skill in the art, 
the poor beast was most miserably notched. The defendant got 
tired after four hours’ work, and then handed over the job to the 
plaintiff. The razors of the shop were in great requisition for ten 
days, during which the shaving was going forward, and the 
plaintiff was obliged, as he proceeded, to wrap up the bald parts 
to protect the horse from cold. The Commissioners, he said, 
could not possibly judge of the difficulty of shaving a horse from 
shaving themselves : it was quite a different sort of a business ; 
and he defied any man to “ go over” such a sized animal for less 
than three shillings a-day, and to go over the chins of his usual 
customers at the same time. 
