I remember another dealer, who, a notable figure in a white top hat with a deep black band, and large coloured spectacles, was to be seen at all the fairs and principal sales.  He, too, had an ingratiating manner, and would accost a young farmer with a hearty, “Good-morning, Squire,” or some such flattering introduction.  A wise dealer always knows how to keep up amicable relations with a possible seller or buyer, and never descends to abuse, or the assumption of a personal injury if he cannot persuade a seller to accept his price, as is the case with some dealers with less savoir faire.

A successful cattle dealer I knew had similar tactics of fraternity, always addressing his sellers as “Governor,” with marked respect.  But the best instance of this diplomatic spirit occurred in the case of a deal between an old Hampshire friend of mine and a well-known and historic sheep dealer from the same county.  My friend had lately become the happy father of twins, the fact being widely known in the neighbourhood, for he was a very prominent man.  He had 100 sheep for sale, and the dealer was inspecting them, in a pen near the house.  As the bargain proceeded, the front door opened, and a nurse-maid appeared with the twins in their perambulator.  The dealer noticed them immediately, and was not slow to turn the incident to his advantage.  “There they be, there they be, the little darlings,” he called out, “a sovereign apiece nurse, a sovereign apiece.”  Diving into a capacious pocket, he pulled out a handful of gold and silver, and selecting two sovereigns he handed them to the nurse for the children.  “After that,” my friend said, “what could I do but sell him the sheep, though he got them at two shillings a head less than I ought to have made.”  Now two shillings a head, on one hundred sheep, represents ten pounds, leaving eight pounds which the dealer earned by his keen insight into human nature.

This dealer carried on business with a brother, and they were to be seen for very many years at all the large Hampshire summer sheep fairs, where indeed, sometimes, when prices were rising, they owned nearly all the sheep offered for sale, having bought them up beforehand.  As in a favourable summer when there was plenty of keep and a good prospect of abundant roots prices would rise as much as 10s. a head during the months of the big fairs, and as at a single fair as many as 30,000 sheep would be for sale, the chances of profit offered to the courageous dealer with capital are manifest.

Though risen from small beginnings, these brothers amassed considerable fortunes, all of which, it was said, they invested in real estate, so that they were known at one time to be worth at least L100,000; and, as they continued in business for some years after the time of which I am writing, they must have exceeded that sum considerably as a total, though the values of land began to fall away towards the end of their active existence.