A gentleman of the name of Skelton then came up, and proposed to Metcalf a small wager, that he could not gallop a horse of his fifty yards, and stop him within two hundred. This horse was notorious as a run-away, and had baffled the efforts of the best and strongest riders to hold him. Metcalf agreed to the wager, upon condition that he might choose his ground; but Skelton objected to there being either hedge or wall in the distance. Metcalf, every ready at any thing that was likely to produce a joke, agreed; the stakes were deposited; and knowing that there was a large bog near the Old Spa at Harrogate, he mounted at about the distance of an hundred and fifty yards from it. Having observed the wind, and placed a person who was to sing a song, for the guidance of sound, he set off, at full gallop, for the bog, and soon fixed the horse saddle-skirt deep in the mire. He then floundered through the dirt as well as he was able, till he gained a firm footing; when he demanded his wager, which was allotted him by the general suffrage. It was with the greatest difficulty, however, that the horse could be extricated.——That Metcalf was so well acquainted with this spot, was owing to his having, about three weeks before, relieved a stranger who had got fast in it in the night, and whose cries had attracted him. It was now no unusual thing with him to buy horses, with a view to sell them again. Happening to meet with a man who had left the place of huntsman to a pack of subscription hounds kept by Sir John Kaye, ’Squire Hawkesworth, and others, and who had a horse to sell, Metcalf inquired his price, at the same time requesting permission to ride him a little way. Having trotted the horse a mile or two, he returned, telling the owner that the _eyes_ of his nag would soon fail. The man, however, stood firm to his demand of twenty-five guineas for the horse, alledging that he was beautifully moulded, only six years old, and his action good. Metcalf then took the man into the stable, and desired him to lay his hand upon the eyes of the horse, to feel their uncommon heat; asking him, at the same time, how he could, in conscience, demand so great a price for a horse that was going blind. This treaty ended with Metcalf’s purchasing the horse, bridle, and saddle, for fourteen pounds.