LONG AND SHORT WHEEL-REINS. 215 



rein put to catch hold of four queer ones with the long 

 one, he would be much at fault ; and I have no hesitation 

 in saying that, with the generality of coachmen and the 

 generality of roads at a distance from the metropolis, the 

 short one is the most safe and convenient. With your 

 nimble-fingered London coachmen of the first order, and 

 with horses all running up to their bits on roads like barn 

 floors, I admit the superiority of the other. With horses 

 of this description, and with gentlemen's horses, it may 

 have the preference ; and I should recommend all young 

 beginners to accustom themselves to the use of it. 

 Having acquired the use of the long, the short one can 

 at any time be had recourse to, and, under some circum- 

 stances, it is certainly the best. 



To make myself perfectly understood on this subject 

 I find it necessary, as the lawyers say, to state a case. 

 All roads are not macadamised ; if they were, the reins 

 on some coaches might be fastened to the foot-board, and 

 the horses might gallop from end to end of their ground, 

 with only an automaton to pull right or left. This, how- 

 ever, is not the case everywhere ; and on many roads 

 where all sorts of coaches travel, there are deep ruts and 

 false quarters ; that is to say, ruts, which, if a coach goes 

 into them, will let her in deep enough to upset her. In 

 the latter case, we will suppose a coachman driving four 

 awkward horses with the long wheel-rein and a top-heavy 

 load. He sees one of these false quarters on the off-side 

 just before him : and his near wheel horse is one of those 

 stiff-necked ones that refuses to answer to the rein, with- 

 out assistance from his partner. What is then to be. 



