186 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



hour on a trot, or from ten to twelve — the latter 

 quite the maximum — on a gallop, under almost any 

 weight." 



But the Cleveland bay did not long continue in his 

 original form ; there were more and greater infusions 

 of thoroughbred blood, so that he became "finer," 

 more speedy, a little longer of limb, and in all re- 

 spects a superior animal for the coach and the saddle. 

 The country gentlemen were great breeders and users 

 of Cleveland bays. " A squire," it is said, " of two or 

 three thousand a year, in the midland or northern 

 counties, did not consider his stable furnished with- 

 out five or six full-sized, well-bred coach horses " ; 

 and if he went a journey of fifty or seventy-five 

 miles, he would be conveyed not only in his own 

 carriage, but by his own steeds. Noblemen counted 

 their carriage horses by the score ; for in those 

 days they travelled in some state. Six-in-hand for 

 gala or ceremonious occasions, and four for every-day 

 purposes, were the usual number. But times have 

 changed. "The old duke always journeyed to Lon- 

 don with six post chaises and four, attended by out- 

 riders. The present man comes up in a first-class 

 carriage with half a dozen bagmen, and sneaks away 

 from the station in a brougham, smoking a cigar." 

 The reader will remember that even Sir Pitt Crawley, 

 most penurious of men, was met by a coach and four 

 at his park gates, where he and his companion Becky 

 Sharp had been set down by the stage. 



County running races also contributed very largely, 

 though indirectly, to the improvement of carriage 

 horses. Local magnates liked to be represented at 

 these races by horses of their own breeding, and con- 



