H4 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



a risk greatly-increased if the horse happens, as is very 

 often the case, to be groggy and tender in his fore feet ; 

 under which circumstances he has enough to do to sup- 

 port his own weight alone, without the additional impulse 

 of the carriage acting against him. When it is con- 

 sidered that the names of the collar, to which the pole 

 chain is fixed, are held together at the top by a small 

 strap and buckle only, and that, in the event of the 

 buckle giving way, the names must fly open, and conse- 

 quently deprive the wheel horse of any further power 

 of resistance, it needs but little reflection to foresee the 

 peril that would attend such an event ; as all power of 

 stopping the carriage would be taken away, its velocity 

 would be increased, and finally, by its overrunning the 

 horses, the consequences may be easily imagined, with- 

 out any further comment. Now when the wheel horses 

 are harnessed with breechings, much of this danger may 

 be avoided ; because even if the names of the collar 

 should fly open, still the breeching would act, and furnish 

 the horse with some power of resistance. It is worthy 

 of remark also, that, in consequence of the pole of a 

 stage-coach issuing quite horizontally from the splinter- 

 bar (and which certainly is necessary, on account of the 

 leaders drawing by it with the swingle-tree bars attached 

 to it), there is a greater danger of its being snapped in 

 the socket (sic) when it is pulled upwards at the other 

 end, by the resistance from the horses' withers, 1 than when 



1 During the summer of 1875 an unfortunate accident happened to the 

 Boxhi-11 stage, by the pole snapping in the futchells ; they certainly had no 

 breeching. 



