Have at!'-pronounced Haave aat!'-which should only be used just at first, by way of encouragement."

Again, "The breaking of the spaniel should be commenced very early, especially with the larger and stronger sorts. They are naturally very impetuous, and yet must be restrained in their range to thirty yards from the gun, at most. They should be taken out, first of all, in small coverts and hedgerows, and imbued with the desire to hunt, which they acquire readily enough, and at six or eight months old are generally quite ready for any sport they may be entered to. Great care should be taken that they are not allowed to amuse themselves by self-hunting,' which they are very apt to indulge in when first entered to game."

6

Unfortunately, no dog runs to riot so quickly; and another sentence from Stonehenge's essay on the breed reads but ungratefully: "Few spaniels are really worth having till they are nearly worn out; for their struggles in wet covers, with briars and thorns, soon spoil their looks, and their constitutions too."

However, here we have them all in full life, just about to be toned down a little, and put in proper working trim for the covers and hedge-rows that, in another month or so, they will rattle through so merrily in the morning early.

Nothing has a more cheerful look than the spaniel; and none, either in the field or about home, are greater favourites.-"Down, Di! Gently, Rover, there!" and one is loath to acknowledge that so gay a spirit can be anywhere out of place. It is certainly not in Mr. Cooper's picture.

ENGLISH HORSE-DEALERS.

BY THE DRUID.

"A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!"

It is about as difficult to get an idea of what horse-dealers are actually doing, as it is to know whether betting men are transacting business on their own account or on commission, or for "kid"; but still we believe that the following brief sketch of the horse dealers of England will be found to contain something more than mere guesses at truth."

Messrs. Elmore, R. Dyson, and Tilbury once held sway among their brethren; but Mr. Collins, of Mount-street, Lambeth, has recently become by far the largest purchaser of hunters at Horncastle. The Lincolnshire farmers generally get into the habit of doing business with

one dealer, and Mr. Collins will buy about seventy from them during the Horncastle month, the best of which range from £160 to £200, and occasionally higher. Many of these do not get to the fair to be sold, as formerly, but are purchased privately, and join the main string at a certain place of rendezvous; but scarcely half of them reach his London stables, as he now has a show of them both at Newark and Barnet, where purchasers and brother-dealers attend to cull. He always buys according to what is required for the particular season; and if the dwellers in Mount-street were to lose sight of their almanacks and the swallows, they would know that spring had come again by the endless supply of stout cobs and park hacks which would, week after week, take up their fleeting habitation among them. Mr. Thomas Collins acts as London salesman for his father, who, along with his fidus Achates, James Webster, visits every great fair out of the 190 odd which the trade profess to frequent, not only in the midland counties and the north, but in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, and, in short, wherever he can get a wind-scent of a likely horse. He is a striking instance of what honesty and good judgment can do for a man. It is little more than fifteen years since we remember him driving his roan pony to Osborne's, in Grays Inn-lane, to buy "machiners ;" and his rise since then, through the successive stages of Aldridge's and Tattersall's, to be the wholesale Leviathan of the trade, has been wonderfully steady and rapid. The pretty general belief among the initiated is, that he sells upwards of eleven hundred animals in the course of the year, at an average of £80 a-piece; and, as a type of the universality of his business, we may mention that, as we lately strolled through his stables, we espied a firstclass hunter almost cheek-by-jowl with a spotted cob, who looked quite ripe for the jocular society of Tom Barry over the way. All the great London dealers purchase from him; and their French brethren, Bénedick, Crimeaux, Ançeli, &c., are among his largest customers, and occasionally go as high as £170 for a riding horse. Mr. Joseph Anderson is also at the very top of the tree, and buys largely of firstclass hunters and hacks; he has, in fact, long been to Piccadilly what Bénedick is to the Champs d'Elysées; and his brother, Mr. John Anderson, has a very rising business at Green-street, Grosvenor-square. Mr. Quartermaine, who once "hailed" from Oxford, buys carriage-horses as well as hunters and hacks, and gives and gets, without exception, as high prices as any man of the day. He cannot rest if there is a good thing in the market, and always has "a particular reason for wanting it directly." We seldom give a passing peep down those trim corridorsort of yards, which make one feel more than anything else the high dignity of the horse in England, and see those mysterious, knowing little knots of purchasers which are ever scanning him there, without calling to mind how the Duke of Queensberry was wont some fifty years since to test the paces of his running-footmen candidates, by seeing how they could run up and down that selfsame pleasant dip in Piccadilly, he watching them and timing them from his balcony.* But our note must

* * *

*The running footmen drank white wine and eggs, and carried some white wine in a large silver ball of their tall cane or pole, which unscrews. They put on the Duke's livery before the trial. On one occasion a candidate presented himself, dressed and ran. At the conclusion of the performance he stood

tell the rest. Mr. S. Cox, of Stamford-street, buys all sorts, from highclass hunters down to cart-horses, in which his uncle, the late Mr. George Cox, drove a very thriving trade among the brewers and distillers. Mr. R. Phillips, of Knightsbridge, assisted by his father-in-law, Mr. Tawney, buys very largely in Shropshire, and furnishes a great many entire horses and other thorough-bred stock to the foreigners. The Emperor of the French, who has been amongst his largest customers, christened one of his favourite riding horses "PHILLIPS," in his honour; and it was from his and Mr. Quartermaine's stables that the King of Sardinia made his selection in his recent visit to England. Along with Messrs. R. Dyson and East, Mr. Phillips holds the contract for the cavalry horses, nearly all of which pass through their hands, and are gathered from every part of the country, by the aid of upwards of twenty commissioners. Messrs. Wimbush and Deacon, Mr. Gray, and Mr. Joshua East (who has succeeded Mr. Dickenson, and is in partnership with Mr. Phillips), Mr. Withers, and Mr. Hetherington, are the largest purchasers of carriagehorses, though some of them do so merely in their own job-master capacity, and not to sell again. They supply themselves not only from Mr. Collins and the other London and country dealers, but attend the great fairs in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Northumberland. It is a nice question, which probably the surveyor of taxes alone can solve, whether Messrs. Wimbush and Co. or Messrs. East and Co. keep the largest number of horses to let out. We believe that they run within three or four pairs of each other, and that at times each firm has owned not fewer than 1,400 pairs. The Messrs. Mason, who succeeded Mr. Elmore, buy their hunters and hacks from Mr. Collins, and the larger dealers, and not often out of the breeders' hands. Mr. Ibbs Brown-or Harboro' Brown, as he is popularly termed-is also in that line; while Mr. Saunders, Mr. Attwood, Mr. Greenway, Mr. Philippo, and Mr. G. Waymark, &c., are what may be called general-purpose men. Mr. Pearl and Mr. Sewell draw, we believe, their supplies chiefly from Norfolk and Suffolk. Mr. Blackburn principally looks after black entire horses, for funerals, which he imports from Dunkirk and elsewhere; and Mr. Smith, of Whatton, makes his voyages of discovery into Germany and Denmark in search of cart-horses. Among the principal country dealers, Mr. John Payne, of Market Harborough, has done a first-class business for thirty years; and Discount, and a countless number of Quorn and Pytchley hunters have passed through his hands. He has, in fact, been to the Leicestershire side of the country what Mr. Kench has been to the Warwickshire; but he has now, we are told, almost given up business. Since his secession, Mr. John Darby, of Rugby, has become one of the most eminent country dealers in hunters and hacks; and Mr. Denham, late of Derby, but now of Kegworth-a first-rate judge, and a first-flight man to boot, in his twelve-stone days-must not be forgotten. Mr. Gething, of Orton, near Newark; Mr. Potter, of Ashby-de-la-Zouche (who used to supply Sir Richard Sutton with several of his Irish horses); and Mr. Stanton, of Grantham, are known for hunters far and wide in the midland counties: while Mr. Barker, of before the balcony. "You'll do very well for me," said the duke. "Your livery will do very well for me," replied the man, and gave the duke a last proof of his ability as a runner by then running away with it.-Notes and Queries.