TANDEM DRIVING. 217 



amount of work which wheeler and leader do, 

 so that the traces may be gently tightened — a 

 proof that both animals are doing their duty. 

 In returning home at night there is no instinct 

 like that of the horse ; he seems to acquire mind 

 by the departure of light, and to succeed best 

 when man is most ready to despair. 



I have trotted a tandem from London to 

 Windsor, at twelve o'clock at night, in the 

 midst of the darkest and most tremendous thun- 

 derstorm I ever witnessed, with little chance of 

 safety but what I owed to the docility of my 

 horses. This is an instinct which, like that of 

 the prophet's ass, should not be balked ; and 

 so firmly am I convinced of the superior intel- 

 ligence of the quadruped to the biped, in cases 

 of similar difficulty, that I would actually give 

 up my own fancy to let him have his head, and 

 make the best he can of it. In going down 

 hill, there is one very necessary caution to be 

 observed to which I must now refer. 



The mode of harnessing a tandem differs 

 from that most usually adopted in a four-in- 

 hand ; so that if your leader is a faster trotter 

 than your wheeler, he draws the collar over 

 the neck of the shaft-horse, and a partial stran- 

 gulation not unfrequently occurs. To prevent 



