quently, the selling out at such price, though it may be loss, is not sacrifice.

This brings me to the particular point where so many persons, really fair judges of horses too, so daily err: they go to a dealer, of whom, in a certain sense, it may be said, as I have heard said of a very fashionable one, "He will not open his mouth under 2007. at least." The buyer is asked prices varying from 150l. to 200%, till, having taken one at 1407., he begins to think that the minimum price of a horse of any promise. He does not, for some reason, like his purchase; shows him to a friend, who, if conversant in such matters, most probably tells him he considers his purchase worth one half the price given, and very probably is able to say, "I can show you two or three at that price better horses, and that would suit you better." Now, suppose the purchaser sold his horse at 707., and took the other at the same price; he would fancy he had made a sacrifice of 70%., whereas in point of fact he made no sacrifice at all; he got the value of his horse, though not Mr.'s price. Most likely, instead of this, he returns to the original seller, gives 30l. or 401. to boot, and gets another horse that perhaps he does not like or likes better. "Well," he says, "this is better than sacrificing 707. by selling my first horse; if I have given more money, I have got a horse worth more." These ifs are very de

CALLING THINGS BY THEIR RIGHT NAMES. 121

ceptive, the chances are he has not got a better horse, and if he has, he has only increased his actual eventual loss; for, though he gave 401. more, he may hold himself lucky if the horse is 207. better than the last, so he only expended a larger sum on equally disadvantageous terms.

Men going on in this way deceive themselves in another particular; they fancy they are always riding on hundred and fifty hunters, when in reality they are riding horses that would be held by good judges, and men who really ride fine horses, as only fit to carry servants. Possibly, after a time, they may find this to be the case: they change on and on till after from first to last they have by dribblets paid about 5007. for each nag they possess, possibly, but not probably, they do at last get a nice horse worth a third of the 500l. It is the worst and the most unsatisfactory way in which a man can go on in getting hunters, or indeed any description of animal of the horse kind.

"Now," continued I, " to go to the person you bought your two horses of would be a very young proceeding indeed. In the first place, what could I say? You took two horses of him quite unfit for your purpose; the error lay with you. I have no reason to doubt their being, as represented, very fair steeple-chasers among their own class of horses; no doubt he would take them in exchange;

but if he did, if he has anything good in his hands, he would want twice its worth; so, as I have shown you any exchange with the same person would only make bad worse, a proper advertisement, and Tattersall's, is the only mode of getting off such nags: they will be known by their names, and their true value as well known, that they will bring and no more.'

CHAP. IV.

HINTS ON PURCHASING HUNTERS. HUNTERS BEST ADAPTED FOR YORKSHIRE; -FOR LEICESTERSHIRE; - FOR BEDFORDSHIRE; FOR THE COUNTRY ROUND LONDON;-FOR QUALITIES OF A HUNTING-RIDER.

OPEN COUNTRIES.

AFTER selling the three horses, I sent my friend their produce, and with it the following hints on

PURCHASING HUNTERS.

The primary subject to be considered is, the state of the purse of the purchaser; the second, the country he intends principally to hunt in; and, thirdly, the kind of rider he is, both as regards his proficiency and predilections. If money is no object, a thoroughly made horse is the best for him to buy, one proved not only to be good, and to know his business, but to do it in a style that it should be done by a gentleman's horse. To attempt to name even the probable price of such a horse would only mislead, as it would all depend upon the circumstances of where, and of whom, he was purchased. If a man purchases from a gentleman, who is so in the comprehensive

sense of the word, that is, embracing all the fine qualities that constitute the character, he has the certainty on his side of not being willingly deceived by the seller. He may, however, be inadvertantly most woefully deceived in his purchase, both on the score of goodness and pleasantry in the animal; for neither are definite terms, both depending on what a particular person calls good or pleasant. In such a case, therefore, a purchaser should ascertain how far his own ideas and those of the seller correspond: if they do, the purchase will, as far as human foresight goes, be sure to turn out a satisfactory one, so far as qualifications and sufficient soundness go. In point of price, however, a young purchaser may, though buying under all these advantages, be most comfortably victimised: not willingly, on the part of the seller, but from his determination not to sell his horse under a particular price. This may arise from a very defensible resolve, that a strong price shall alone induce him to part from that which affords him gratification, or from really conceiving the animal to be quite worth the price he demands, in either of which circumstances the purchaser will, in most cases, find he has paid a somewhat strong price for his horse: if he gets what he wishes, the gratification of our wishes seldom being to be had at their just value, he has no great cause to complain.