AT NEWMARKET. 
457 
horse. He must have more discretion than falls to the lot of 
most young men who will not sometimes incautiously commit 
himself here; and the fear that he may incautiously divulge that 
which should be as secret as the grave, will close against him 
the door of many of these establishments. He can scarcely say 
a word on his most favourite topic, the structure, and the powers, 
and the management of the horse, that will not be perverted. 
He is most perplexingly situated,—he must shew himself master 
of his profession, and yet he must weigh well every word, lest it 
should be supposed to have reference to some particular horse, 
and indicate his opinion of that horse, and disarrange the books 
of the owner or of the groom. 
A gentleman once called on a friend of ours, and asked him 
whether he would go a considerable distance to operate on a 
turf horse, and pledge himself that he would make no attempt 
to discover to whom the horse belonged, or mention it to any one 
if he should accidentally discover it, or, for a certain time, speak 
to any one of the direction or object of his journey. He was 
taken to a little country town, at the best inn in which his 
quarters were established ; thence he had to walk a mile to a 
lonely farm to see his patient. He was always met there by one 
or two gentlemen, who introduced themselves by some common 
name, and frequently they returned and dined with him at his 
inn; but he never knew who they were, and the people of the inn 
did not suspect his business. When the patient was conva¬ 
lescent, he was handsomely remunerated and dismissed, shrewdly 
guessing, indeed, with whom he had had to do, but refraining 
from making the slightest inquiry, and to the present hour not 
assured that his suspicions were well founded*. 
With all this mystery attending the common concerns of the 
stable, and every precaution and suspicion redoubled when any 
i 
* Two or three years ago, a horse, that afterwards won one of the great 
stakes at Epsom, was somewhat amiss, and the writer of this article was re¬ 
quested to attend him. He saw him daily for a week, but never at the 
owner’s stables, and never twice at the same place ; generally in some unfre¬ 
quented road, and in very different directions, and in such a manner that 
the meeting should seem to be perfectly accidental; the consequence of 
which was, that the fact of his not being quite right was never generally 
known, or even suspected. 
