terial of which each has been made. If we go to a good watchmaker and pay him a good price, he can be almost certain in selling a watch that will go well, and continue to do so, from knowing the goodness of its materials, and the skill employed in putting them together. The manufacturer of any other article can be equally certain of its relative goodness; but I know of no manufacturer of horses; and until one is found, though our eye can tell us the horse that goes well, we must trust to chance as to how long he will continue to go: the soundness of his materials can only be found out by trial; and yet such is the perversity or folly of men in general, that though some one has risked this trial, the horse none the worse for it (indeed the better), and proved to be likely to continue a good and useful servant, it is this very trial that will in nine cases out of ten depreciate him in the estimation of a purchaser.

I think I can now bring the purchasing a horse and a watch in such close affinity as to bear precisely the same on each. We will suppose a salesman (not a manufacturer) to have twenty new watches sent him for sale, all good-looking, but the maker unknown in this case neither he nor a purchaser can form any opinion of their goodness, nor have either the slightest means of judging of their relative soundness of material: all that a purchaser can do is to select the one that pleases his eye, and that he finds will at all events go at present. We will say ten of these are sold, and at the end of the year, like horses, some have gone well during the whole time; others have continued to go for the same time, but badly; some have gone for six months, and then could go no longer; while some did not go for a

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THE WAY OF THE WORLD.

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week. Suppose the purchaser of one of the two or three that have gone well for the twelve months, and are still going on well, should he wish to sell his purchase, and the same salesman again undertakes the sale of it, we might naturally suppose that every person would take this proved good watch in preference to one of the new ones of whose goodness he must run all the risk. No doubt every man of sense would do so: but depend upon it nine persons out of ten would prefer a new one, unless the other was to be sold at a greatly depreciated price: and even then most persons would still take the new one, and console themselves with the idea and common opinion, "If I get a new thing I know the wear of it." Do they? If they do, they know more than any other person does at least, it is so as far as regards horses. Now could any reasonable man expect the salesman to take this watch upon his own hands? or if he did, must he not do so at a very low price indeed in comparison with its original one? The horse-dealer in taking back a horse is placed in the same predicament indeed in a worse, inasmuch as a watch is worn unseen by the public, and consequently has not been rendered common in its eyes; but the horse has. If we are offered a second-hand watch, it is a thousand to one that we ever know its former possessor, or that any one will tell us that the watch belonged to Lord B-; but let his horse be offered for sale, and though My Lord had only driven him twelve months, the salesman of him, be he who he may, will be told, Why that's Lord B.'s old cab-horse." Anything that has become blazé in London has also become valueless, or at least to a great degree it has become so. A young friend of mine, while on the Peninsula,

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TOYS FOR GROWN CHILDREN.

bought a beautiful and very English-looking milkwhite horse, and was fortunate enough shortly afterwards to meet with an exact match for him. Their manes and tails were really magnificent; but he took it into his head to die them a very pretty light chestnut, with rather a pinkish hue. A lady of A lady of very high native rank there fell in love with these pink-tailed horses, and he sold them to her at an enormous sum. He certainly sold them as they were, nor did he say the tails were not dyed, but he took very good care not to say that they were; in fact, the question was never asked: if it had, I am quite sure he would at once have said that they were. Some time after the hair began to grow, and of course the tails and manes began to put on a suspicious appearance, but luckily, just in the nick of time, his regiment was ordered home. Of course, the manes and tails after a time came to their own much more becoming colour; they were, after all, a magnificent pair of horses, and the lady had no reason to complain of anything but the price.

Supposing such a pair of horses, with really pinkishchestnut manes and tails, fell into Anderson's hands; his door in Piccadilly would be besieged by the elite of the beau monde; and whether he chose to ask two or six hundred for the pair would matter little. Many, it is true, would not buy them at all, but those who were so inclined would give anything he chose to ask; and probably, before they had been driven a week, some one would tempt the owner by the offer of a couple of hundred more to induce him to sell them. Let these be driven till the end of the season -they would have been seen by every one, their novelty would have worn off; and novelty was their

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recommendation: the owner would probably have become tired of them, and would heartily wish their tails had also been dyed. When he purchased them, perhaps not more than one person in five thousand would have liked them; but now he finds no one will have them at all. Second-hand things of any description sell badly enough; but if I was to rack my brains for a month to hit upon anything second-hand the most difficult of all others to get rid of, I should certainly say a pair of milk-white horses with pinkish-chestnut manes and tails. Anderson would probably recollect them with many pleasurable feelings: I should imagine he would be the only one who would.

In nearly the commencement of these Hints I stated my firm conviction that no gentleman could make money by horses as a tradesman. I further, in no measured terms, gave my opinion of those who use their position in society as a cloak to their being in fact horse-dealers. This can only last for a time; that is, till they are found out. I have also given it as my impression that a respectable dealer is the best source from which a gentleman can supply himself with horses, and have at the same time allowed that purchasing in this way he will lose by his horses if he wishes to sell them. It might be remarked, from what I have said, that the only inferenee to be drawn is, that a gentleman must either be a rogue, or lose by all his horses. I do not quite mean this; but I am afraid it comes very near the truth. It must, however, be recollected, that I allude to gentlemen who are not in the sporting term "horse men," who know little about them, merely have them as necessary appendages to their position in life, and as objects of utility and luxury to which they are accustomed.

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JUDGES, BUT NOT BIG WIGS.

Such men must undoubtedly expect to lose by their horses. Why should they not? They lose by their furniture, their clothes, their carriages, and indeed by everything; yet they abuse the dealer if they lose by a horse.

Having said that gentlemen in a general way must lose by horses, I will now endeavour to show that there are some gentlemen who not only do not lose, so far as price goes, but who really keep half a dozen or more horses at very little expense. Mind, I do not mean they make money by them; that is quite a different thing: but they get their show and amusement for a hundred or two a year, which costs others a thousand or much more. This can only be done by men who from practice and decided partiality to horses have acquired a quick eye, good taste, and perfect judgment in choosing their horses a perfect knowledge of the best stable-management of them afterwards—and, finally, fine judgment, fine hands, a fine seat, and fine nerves in riding or driving them. This is only to be acquired by beginning early: riding must from infancy have been as natural to him as walking, or, with a few exceptions, he will never become a horseman. A tailor may begin at five-andtwenty to first get on a horse, and yet make a capital dragoon he would never, however, be made (as least not one man in a thousand would) a hunting rider. Look at the difference between the manner and seat of a man who began from childhood, and the schooltaught adult; the first steps into his saddle without hesitation or preparation: the moment he is there, you see he is at home and in his element as much as a duck is the moment she touches the water. The other prepares himself for the exploit; then prepares to