STANHOPES AND FASHIONABLE CARRIAGES. 225 



and being - asked by a friend which road he was going, 

 he replied, 'You must ask my leader, for I cannot tell you 

 till I get into the street! This answer was no less candid 

 than true ; for if a leader make a sudden stop — having 

 no coupling rein to secure him — he has it all his own 

 way ; and the best coachman in England can have no 

 power over him, for the moment he stops his reins are 

 useless. The only chance a man has of being sure of 

 his mark with a tandem, is to have a leader that will run 

 well up to his bit, and want nothing" but holding, as then, 

 by keeping him in his place, and making the wheeler 

 work up to him, the draught may be shared between 

 them ; but the moment the point of the thong goes out 

 of the hand of the driver, that moment things go wrong. 

 The two best tandem drivers that I ever came across in 

 my travels through life, are a gentleman by the name of 

 Wetherall, who resides in Gloucestershire, and a Captain 

 Brydges, of Hampshire. Were a leader in a tandem 

 always running home, as it is with a coach-horse, the 

 case would be much altered. 



Though fashion, in everything, bears sovereign sway, 

 yet there may be a tandem-driver or two yet left, and to 

 such I offer the following hint : — The beauty of coach- 

 manship with four in hand, is to point the leaders, in 

 making a turn, so that the wheelers may follow nearly in 

 their tracks. This, however, cannot be done with a 

 tandem in a short turn, and for this reason : Unless you 

 reduce your leader's draught, the wheel-horse cannot 

 contend against his increased power, and, though never 

 so good a whipped horse, he will be drawn out of 



Q 



