# Mr. Thoroughgood — Black Beauty character guide

> Mr. Thoroughgood in Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0047-part-iv-xlviii-farmer-thoroughgood-and-his-grandson-willie

## Snapshot

A shrewd old farmer who buys broken-down horses cheap and quietly restores them, giving Beauty his last and happiest home.

## Who they are

Thoroughgood moves through the horse-fair world as a man who knows a ruined animal when he sees one, yet buys on trial rather than on pity, insisting the young groom prove himself fair. His judgment is practical, not sentimental: he reads Beauty's star, scarred knees, and threepenny-bit patch as evidence of a good horse badly used, and he trusts his own eye over the dealer's word. In the story's closing arc he becomes the hinge between Beauty's suffering and his restoration, the quiet proof that kindness and good sense can undo years of cruelty.

## In the story

### [My Breaking In](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/black_beauty_se/chapters/part-i-iii-my-breaking-in)

Not directly present in this chapter.

### [Farmer Thoroughgood and His Grandson Willie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/black_beauty_se/chapters/part-iv-xlviii-farmer-thoroughgood-and-his-grandson-willie)

Buys Black Beauty as a speculation; provides rest and good food; tests him in the phaeton.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/black_beauty_se/characters/farmer_thoroughgood
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/black_beauty_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/black_beauty_se/characters