The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

SHAPE and MAKE

.—The "shape and make" of horses offered for sale, is such an eternal echo, whether at the public hammer, or by private contract, from one end of the kingdom to the other, that it is natural to conceive, no sporting subject can be more completely understood; but as there are eternally younger branches coming forward, and monied noviciates paying for practical experience in the art of DEALING, such extensive rules are introduced, to inculcate the absolute necessity for circumspection in BUYING, under the head Horse, that not a single line of utility can be added upon the subject.