334 RIDING FOR LADIES, 



at various lengths — all of which have to be learned ; and 

 nobody can be called a coachman who is not intimately 

 familiar with them — so much so that he can cany his whip 

 without apparently thinking about it, and hold it, use it, 

 and curl it, as if by a kind of instinct — precisely as all 

 these ought to be done. 



A Team should be trained to Stand perfectly still 

 until the driver gives the word to go. A restless, uneasy, 

 shuffling, while the apron is being adjusted, the whip taken 

 up, and the reins gathered, is both unsightly and un- 

 pleasant. 



The Wheelers in a four-in-hand coach ought to start it 

 and turn it round, without the leaders ever feeling the 

 traces ; and they ought to stop the vehicle with the traces 

 of the leaders resting quite slack. 



A GOOD Driver will have his leaders so in hand at the 

 start that when they move they will be out of the collars, 

 and entirely clear of the splinter-bars. 



Practice should be on level ground, and on roads devoid 

 of traffic. None save really first-class drivers ought ever 

 attempt to pilot a coach through a crowded thoroughfare. 

 Plenty of novices do it, and delude themselves with the 

 notion that they are driving beautifully, when in reality 

 they are only clearing the road — for, as a rule, people 

 leave a passage for a four-horsed coach, chiefly I fancy 

 through fear of being run down by it if they don't speedily 

 get out of its way. 



