ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



their credit be it spoken, in point of neatness, utility, and 

 safety, they have accomplished more than their most 

 sanguine hopes could have anticipated, in their improve- 

 ments on the old model of a one-horse chair — the term 

 by which a gig was originally denominated ; and even 

 Royalty itself is now to be seen in a modern Dennet or 

 Stanhope. The latter takes its name from the Hon. 

 Fitzroy Stanhope, a coachman of well-known celebrity, 

 and who, we are unfortunately obliged to remember, had 

 his foot and instep amputated in consequence of being 

 upset in a gig. 



Independent of the coachmakers, there are two other 

 classes of persons which widely partake of the profits 

 arising from the unbounded circulation of these two- 

 wheeled vehicles; and those are — the medical profession, 

 and undertakers ; for among the whole catalogue of the 

 daring pursuits of an Englishman, there is not a tithe of 

 the fractures, amputations, and deaths that the system 

 of gig-driving produces ; and this, mainly, because this 

 said art is practised by thousands who know nothing 

 about it. Knowledge, however, in this instance, is often 

 put to defiance, as several old and experienced road- 

 coachmen have been killed out of gigs. For my own 

 part, when I see a modern gig with a powerful thorough- 

 bred horse, full of condition, in its shafts, two similes 

 always present themselves. First, it reminds me of a 

 boat, inasmuch as there is only a one-inch plank between 

 those who sit in it, and eternity ; and, secondly, it brings 

 to my imagination, a canister tied to a dog's tail. 

 Amongst all my acquaintance, I scarcely know of one 



