November 15th.–Horse-dealers are the same all the world over. To-day comes one with a beast for which he asked £50. “There was a Government agent looking after this horse for one of them French princes, I believe, just as I was talking to the Kentuck chap that had him. ‘John,’ says he, ‘that’s the best-looking horse I’ve seen in Washington this many a day.’ ‘Yes,’ says I,‘ and you need not look at him any more.’ ‘Why?’ says he. ‘Because,’ says I, ‘it’s one that I want for Lord John Russell, of the London Times,’ says I, ‘and if ever there was a man suited for a horse, or a horse that was suited for a man, they’re the pair, and I’ll give every cent I can raise to buy my friend, Lord Russell, that horse.’” I could not do less than purchase, at a small reduction, a very good animal thus recommended.
William Howard Russell’s Diary.
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