THE ANGLE OF TRACTION, ETC. 237 



vehicle, and the necessity for making frequent stop- 

 pages, or, on the other hand, the wear and tear of the 

 horses, are to be decisive. 



The length of the 'pole and pole-chains. — In four- 

 wheeled vehicles these are important considerations, 

 and so very nearly connected with the length of the 

 traces that they find their place here naturally. As 

 a matter of course, a longer trace involves a longer 

 pole, as the end of the latter should always project to 

 a certain extent beyond the horses' chests. What is 

 this certain length 1 



In gentlemen's carriages a long piece of pole stick- 

 ing out in front is considered to be inelegant ; then, 

 again, it is supposed to be correct, so to say inevitable, 

 that a carriage should be halted as suddenly as a drill- 

 sergeant halts his awkward squad ; and, finally, it is 

 held to be an outrage on all decency and sesthetical pro- 

 priety if the horses, in endeavouring to "bring up the 

 craft all standing," as the sailors say, and with a mere 

 stump of a pole, should turn out their croupes towards 

 the bystanders. Now, much as we regret placing 

 ourselves in antagonism to fashion, even in the slight- 

 est degree, we are compelled to say that the whole 

 proceeding is sadly deficient in that sweetness and 

 light which Mr. Arnold has remarked to be character- 

 istic of the Barbarians ; that to us, on the contrary, it is 

 markedly redolent of Philistinism, inasmuch as it seems 

 to say, "Let us show the Plebians that money is no ob- 

 ject, and that one or two pairs of horses, more or less, 

 make no difference." 



Fig. 21 shows that when the end of the pole projects 

 but very little beyond the line of the horses' chests — 

 as, for instance, only to the line x x — the animals 



