THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



keep on a night coachman, when they know he is drunk on 

 his box four nights in the week, although, to be sure, this part 

 of the business is not so bad as it used to be, in my early 

 days ! It was a chance, then, to find a night coachman qiiite 

 sober. Then how many proprietors keep on a restive horse, 

 sooner than lose a few pounds by getting rid of him to the 

 best bidder ! Again : what cripples will some on 'em put on 

 the mails over the middle ground ! A gentleman once told 

 me, that he was on the box of one of the cross country mails, 

 when, after passing a very awkward bridge, on a dark and 

 foggy night, the coachman said to him : — " Well over that 'ere 

 bridge, sir ; there's only one eye among us," which, of course, 

 was his own. But only think, sir, of four blind horses for 

 night work • ' 



'Give us a few maxims, Jem,' said Frank Raby, 'by the 

 observance of which you have succeeded so well in keeping 

 your coach on her legs.' 



' They are few and simple, sir,' replied Jem ; ' but, mind 

 ye, I haven't had much practice of night work, my lamps 

 being only lit for an hour or two in the dead of the winter ; 

 but you shall have what you wish. First of all, I examine 

 my coaches before they leave the builder's yard, to see that 

 the best kind of stuff" is put into them ; and I am very par- 

 ticular about the pole fitting tight in the furchells. Once a 

 pole begins to swag in the furchells, a little thing breaks it : 

 and, mind ye, it is one of the main stays of a coach ! — what 

 the rudder is to the ship. Then I never drive a shying horse 

 as leader, if I can help it ; but if he is too slight for the wheel 

 of our coach, or will not work well in that place, I always put 

 a mope over his face, which prevents his seeing anything 

 beyond a few yards of the road under his feet, and that's 

 quite enough. A coach-horse don't want to be a-looking 

 about him, no more than the man who drives him, unless it 

 be at his road. I am very particular about my harness — 

 about the reins and billets. I watch the wearing parts, and 

 have them cut out and replaced in time, and I make my horse- 

 keepers beat the collars and keep them clean, so that, in spite 

 of the heavy loads my coach carries, and the steep hills on 

 our road, I never have a gib-horse, because I never have a 

 sore shoulder. In short, I hates to see a broken skin about 

 a coach-horse, and he never need have one, if his coachman 



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