Baronet, nothing daunted, touches him smartly under the flank,
when up he goes on his fore-quarters, smashes the tilbury into ten
thousand pieces, bolts away with the traces and shafts, and leaves
the baronet with a broken head ~208~~ on one side of the road, and his
servant with a broken arm on the other. 'Where the devil did you get
that quiet one from, Sir John!' said the Honourable Fitzroy St-----e,
whom the accident had brought to the spot.
'The parson bought him of an old gentleman at Richmond yesterday for
me.' 'Done, brown as a berry,' said Fitzroy: 'I sold him only on
Saturday last to the reverend myself for twenty pounds as an incurable
miller. Why the old clerical's turned coper{1}--;a new way of raising the
wind--letting his friends down easy--gave you a good dinner, I suppose,
Sir John, and took this method of drawing the bustle{2} for it: an old
trick of the reverend's.' After this it is hardly necessary to say, the
servant was a confederate, and the whole affair nothing more or less
than a true orthodox farce of horse chaunting,{3} got up for the express
purpose of raising a temporary supply."{4}
1 A horse-dealer.
2 Money.
3 Tricking persons into the purchase of unsound or vicious
horses.
4 A practice by no means uncommon among a certain
description of dashing characters, who find chaunting a
horse to a green one, a snug accidental party at chicken
hazard, or a confederacy to entrap some inexperienced bird
of fashion, where he may be plucked by Greek banditti, pay
exceedingly well for these occasional dinner parties.
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