156 "BLESSINGS," QUERE? 



level roads, are all very well and very commodious for 

 those who like them, and are blessed with a lot of 

 little olive branches that want to get the air ; in which 

 case, unless papa is rich, though he must take care of 

 the brandies, I suspect he gets but few of the olives, 

 and a very small modicum of wine to take with them. 

 But supposing he does keep this said carriage, if he 

 thinks, because he gets along very well from Wands- 

 worth, Camberwell, or some such neither London nor 

 country sort of locality, he can take the whole lot 

 pleasantly and easily along a fair and equal trot over 

 a hilly country, he will find himself very far from the 

 mark : he will find he will want mettle, and weight of 

 metal in his horse, and all the knowledge of a coach- 

 man accustomed to heavy work, or he will find both 

 himself and the olive branches very soon PLANTED. 



I am not at all prepared to say but a four-wheeled 

 carriage may be so constructed as to be quite as 

 advantageous to a horse in a hilly country as a two- 

 wheeled one ; for the former has this advantage, that, 

 in going down hill with a drag on, the horse has 

 nothing to do but trot down himself, whereas in a 

 gig he has to hold it : but then again he has the ad- 

 vantage in the latter in getting up hills ; for, build a 

 four-wheeled carriage as you like, it has to get over 

 every obstruction it meets twice, while the two- 

 wheeled machine has only to surmount it once. But 

 if we wish to enable a horse to draw these two 

 carriages over the same road with equal ease, the 

 four-wheeled one must not have the ordinary wheels 

 under thirty inches, and the fore ones in proportion 

 less. Such a vehicle would never be got along by 

 the side of a good running gig. 



Being fond of very fast horses, I have built many 



