162 FORMER ERRORS. 



one might be seated vis-a-vis a pair of moustaches, I 

 could see no fun in playing battering rams, thick as 

 my scull maybe and in good truth its thickness has 

 been pretty well tried in more ways than committing 

 its fugitive thoughts to paper. 



A very great error existed for a long time as to the 

 proper application of weight to horses in two-wheeled 

 carriages : with some it probably exists still, though 

 certainly not so generally as it did some years since. 

 This error arose from a perfectly evident conclusion, 

 that the more weight we throw on the horse's back, 

 the less there must be on the wheels ; and to effect this 

 a much greater portion of weight was put before the 

 axle in old gigs than in modern ones. Nothing cer- 

 tainly could be more absurd than to suppose this was 

 advantageous to the horse ; and yet many sensible 

 men entertained the idea. There can be no doubtbut 

 if we take, say a hundred-weight oif the wheels and 

 put it on the horse's back, the wheels would certainly 

 make a hundred-weight less impression on the road, 

 being that much lighter ; but it by no means follows 

 that the change is in favour of the horse : in fact, 

 common sense tells us it is the reverse ; for if the 

 changing the hundred-weight was advantageous, it 

 must follow that if we could pack the two persons, 

 their luggage, gig, and all on his back, it would be 

 better still ; and so on, till, in lieu of a horse drawing a 

 ton of hay, we should be making the experiment of 

 trying how he could carry it, in which I rather 

 imagine we should fail. That weight hanging back 

 so far as to cause any exertion of the horse to keep it 

 down must be a useless expenditure of labour, is quite 

 certain ; in fact, the desideratum is to give him if 

 possible increased hold of the ground ; but the putting 



