THE COACH-HORSE.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[the coach-house. 



This delightful exercise is now very fesliion- 

 able, and we feel assured that it is an exercise 

 which combines health with pleasure to the 

 riders, whilst it exhibits both tlie elegance and 

 the grace of the fair horsewomen in a most 

 marked degree. 



For elegance, a lady's pad should have a 

 considerable show of blood, and should seldom 

 exceed fifteen hands in height. The paces 

 should not be rough ; and an easy slow trot, 

 the pace of health, is a valuable qualification. 

 The canter is of the chief consequence, and 

 it should be made naturally and handsomely, 

 the neck kept gracefully curved, the mouth 

 having pleasant feeling. Such as have these 

 qualifications are natural canterers, and will 

 last at it, and, at the proper signal, will drop 

 into the trot or walk, without roughness, 

 boggling, or changing of legs. But the first 

 and grand consideration is going safely ; for a 

 horse deficient in tliis respect, is, perhaps, 

 always most liable to fall in his canter. The 

 most graceful canterers may be observed to 

 lead generally with the off-leg; but no doubt 

 there is such an error as a horse, both in his 

 canter and gallop, going with the wrong leg 

 first, to the considerable uneasiness of the 

 rider. This is most felt upon worn and battered 

 brutes, which change their legs to procure a 

 momentary ease. 



THE COACH-HORSE. 

 Before entering upon a description of our 

 carriage stock of horses, we will take a glance 

 at the past, and briefly trace the history of the 

 use of carriages in this country, and recount 

 some feats of pedestrianism, which, previous to 

 the making of roads, necessarily occurred as a 

 means of communication between one locality 

 and another. It is even within our own recol- 

 lection, when, in Scotland, the half-silly beggar. 

 or gaberlunzie, was employed to carry letters 

 and messages over ten miles of country, from 

 one friend to another; and our ancestors, 

 instead of communicating by post, were obliged 

 to use running footmen, whose extraordinary 

 performances were sufSciently rapid even to 

 raise astonishment. In making a comparison 

 between the former modes of travelling and 

 the present, we feel a glow of satisfaction at 

 the immense improvement which has taken 

 place, and which almost seems to realise the 

 98 



expression that time is left to pant after us. 

 The invention of the steam-engine has proved 

 of the utmost importance. The mechanical 

 genius of England has adapted it to carry a 

 sliip over the bosom of the Atlantic, with 

 almost as much safety and certainty as the 

 Locomotive whirls her train over the well-laid, 

 rail. By reducing space within a comparatively 

 limited period of time, steam has become a great 

 means of civilisation. It has connected the me- 

 tropolis of the empire with the smallest of the 

 British Isles ; is the most rapid conductor of 

 commerce; and is continually adding to our com- 

 forts, by, as it were, bringing "the ends of tho 

 earth together." In fact, fifty years ago, men, 

 the most advanced in knowledge, and the most 

 sanguine in the expectation of realising im- 

 provements, would be overwhelmed with asto- 

 nishment at the immense stride the arts and 

 sciences have taken in so short a time. 



" In by-gone days, in Scotland," says 

 Chambers, " tliey had a class of officials called 

 running footmen, of whose pedestrian powers 

 many surprising examples are noticed by tra- 

 dition. Eor instance, in the Duke of Lauder- 

 dale's house, at Thirlstane, near Lauder, on 

 the table-cloth being, one morning, laid for a 

 large dinner party, it was discovered that there 

 was a deficiency of silver spoons. Instantly, 

 the footman was sent ofl^" to the duke's other 

 seat of Lethington, near Haddington, full 

 seventeen miles oflT, and across hills and moors, 

 for a supply of the necessary articles. He 

 returned with a bundle of spoons in time for 

 dinner." 



Again, at Hume Castle, in Berwickshire, 

 the Earl of Home had one night given his 

 footman a commission to proceed to Edinburgh, 

 thirty-five miles off", in order to deliver a 

 message of high political consequence. Next 

 morning early, when his lordship entered the 

 hall, he saw the man sleeping on a bench ; and, 

 conceiving that he had neglected his duty, was 

 about to commit some rash act, when the poor 

 fellow awoke, and informed Lord Home that 

 his commission had been executed; and that, 

 having returned before his lordship was stirring, 

 he had only taken leave to rest himself a little. 

 The earl, equally astonished and gratified by 

 the activity of his faithful vassal, rewarded him 

 with a little piece of ground, which, to this day, 

 bears the name of the post rig — a term equi- 



