WHIPS 147 



a whip, but the original MS. appears to have only 

 a rude goad. Consequently, we leave our readers 

 to decide upon the value of this information, for 

 some may declare that no fiagella were used in 

 England before the eleventh century. Other 

 readers may argue that, if the Greeks and Romans 

 used whips long before this period, probably the 

 Britons used them also when driving their war 

 chariots. 



The Louterell Psalter of the fourteenth century 

 shows a carter driving his team with a short, 

 stocked whip having three thongs— an instrument 

 more like a scourge than our conception of a 

 driving-whip. Needless to say there were no 

 true driving-whips until the date when coaches 

 were introduced, and that did not occur till about 

 the year 1600. 



The next point that it is necessary to emphasise 

 is this : From the time when the various whips 

 we have alluded to were invented, up to the last 

 century, very little ingenuity seems to have been 

 exercised in the manufacture of whips. As we 

 have seen, in the first instance they were con- 

 structed for corporal punishment, but subsequently 

 they were used by carters to quicken the paces of 

 beasts of burden, and then only one lash was 

 required. But where are any old whips to be 

 seen ? 



It is very rare to find a whip of any date earlier 

 than the Stuart period ; a few made in the reign 

 of Charles II. still exist. Racing men need 

 scarcely be reminded that the famous Newmarket 

 Challenge Whip, of which more anon, dates from 



