my father did when he lost a hundred-pound note?"

"No," says Lord Tom, not much caring.

"Went home and got another."

When we lose a valuable bird or beast, we just

go to Jamrach, or somebody else, and "get another."

K 2

A FEW PRACTICAL HINTS ON

HORSE DEALING.

EXCEPTING to sell, there are few more difficult things than to buy a horse. A few hints derived from the practical experience of some forty years, during which I have always been owner of from two to five horses of all sorts, and adapted-at least, used for all purposes, may not be out of place, or entirely useless to my readers.

"A buyer," some one somewhere says, “has need of a hundred eyes; the seller, but of one." It is to the former, therefore, that I address myself; and without any expectation of adding the extra ninety-and-eight, I may hope, to some extent, to open the two he now possesses.

"Never buy a horse of a friend," is a maxim I have insisted on elsewhere; à fortiori, "never buy of a stranger." The markets for the intended horse keeper are, therefore, restricted to three sources-horse dealers, commission agents, or public auction. The first two are in many respects similar-at least, the same knowledge is required for both; the principal dogma I would enforce is, to be quite sure you know what it is you want; it

is astonishing how much trouble would be saved, and how much disappointment avoided, if gentlemen would really ascertain that point for themselves before they enter a dealer's or commission agent's yards. There is a story told by Old Jorrocks in Handley Cross, of a dealer who, after showing an undecided customer all sorts of horses, adapted for all sorts of work, which had been, one after the other, declined, insisted upon running down a cow for inspection. Many men go into a yard without any definite idea whether it is a horse or a cow they want.

Assuming you know what you are really looking for, assuming you have plenty of money, and assuming you to be acquainted with an honest dealer-by no means so rare a being as people are in the habit of supposing-no teaching is necessary; in fact, the less you know the better. Do not be ashamed of confessing the ignorance you enjoy in common with at least ninety-nine out of a hundred of your fellow creatures; on the contrary, acknowledge it, state your want, be it hack, hunter, or harness horse, and confide in the dealer as you would in any other tradesman. I do not say refuse a warranty, though I would, personally, neither ask for nor give one; but, warranted or not, if you are prepared to pay a good price, it is

to the dealer's interest to supply you with a good horse, if he have one; and should the animal not turn out what you expected, whether warranted or not, the seller will take him back, change and exchange again, until you are suited. This, as I have said, is the simplest, the least troublesome, and many think, in the end, the cheapest plan. I know of no more unfair or unmerited stigma than that which, in the minds of many, attaches to the trade of horse dealing. There are, of course, low and dishonest dealers in horses, as there are in all commodities, but the body is not to be judged by them. There are probably as good an average of honest, high-minded men in that trade as in any other, but they labour under great disadvantages. Their traffic is in the most uncertain, varying, and hard-to-judge-of article in existence. A goldsmith can assay his gold, or test his silver; very moderate experience will enable the merchant to judge the quality of wine, or silk, or wool; a timber dealer knows a sound log when he sees it; but the most astute and long-practised of horse dealers may fail to discover hidden defects in a colt, and young horses he must have, for his customers insist upon having them young, though, in by far the greater number of instances, a seasoned old one, if sound, would suit them ten

times better. Then there are the infantile diseases to which horseflesh is heir, more numerous possibly than those which afflict our own babies; there are the results of change of diet, change of treatment, change of water, to be guarded against; and finally the dealer has to contend with the ignorance of the purchaser, more commonly still of his groom, and with the whims and fancies of both. A horse dealer is after all a man, liable, as all men are, to err in judgment, and, as I have said, may have overlooked a latent defect in his purchase. If it be so, he pays the penalty, whether unsoundness or vice appear in course of nature or brought on by injudicious treatment; the warranty is at once resorted to, the animal, which has suffered not only in quality but in character, is returned, and the loss is pocketed if the seller be wise; for when did a horse dealer ever get justice at the hands of a British jury? A cab-driver might as well expect it at those of a police magistrate.

I have touched on this the first part of my subject at greater length than I intended, but I will treat the second more briefly. The commission agent acts the part of a broker, or go-between only. His business is much more simple than that of the dealer, and there are many advantages in purchasing from a yard of established reputation.