426 
ON VETERINARY CONSULTATIONS. 
favour, or the right, to say, that he would not? order any par¬ 
ticular medicine until he had communicated with us. 
When, probably observing our dissatisfaction, he became more 
punctual, there was not an action, or a gesture, which did not 
bespeak the great man lending his assistance to a mere under¬ 
strapper. The questions put to us were put in as authoritative a 
tone, or even more so, than to the underlings of the stable ; and 
after he had obtained the information he required, his opinion 
was given, without reservation, in the stable, and before them 
all: fault was found with this medicament, and another was 
ordered to be substituted ; and then came the cold withering 
commendation,—he dared to say Mr.- would do all that 
was necessary, and he would call in again in a few days, to 
see that all things were going on well.” 
The mystery was now" unravelled, and we determined to have 
nothing more to do wdth Mr.-; and a circumstance occurred 
a few days afterwards which perfectly settled our resolution. A 
horse belonging to a titled lady had been very ill, but was re¬ 
covering securely enough, yet not so rapidly as to keep pace with 
the impatience of the owner. One morning we w-ere desired to be 
at the stables, at a certain hour, to meet Mr.-. We were 
there to a minute. I am afraid. Sir,” said the coachman, 
there is something^ wrong; : Mr.-has been here, and he has 
been with my lady in the drawing-room, and we heard him talk 
about coming again to-morrow.” The coachman was perfectly 
right. We desired that Lady-might be informed that we 
were waiting, and we received in answer, that her Ladyship did 
not wish us to call again, and that we might send in our bill as 
soon as we pleased. It may be supposed that we never sent for 
Mr.-again ; but we did again and again refuse to meet him, 
always giving our reason why, and that without hesitation or 
scruple. 
About a month afterwards, how'ever, we had another precious 
sample of the mingled ignorance, and impudence, and rascality 
(we were going to say) of those who, from their situation, ought to 
be lights to their professional brethren. We were attending a 
young and very promising horse, on which the owner put great 
