22S ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



surprised there are not more. The safety rein is certainly 

 a security, in case of an awkward driver letting- his horse 

 get the other under his tail, to which the late unsightly 

 length of tail in horses driven in single harness has 

 greatly contributed. The contrivance, however, did not 

 escape the critical eyes of coachmen, who sarcastically 

 observed, ' Why that there gentleman can't drive one 

 horse, without two pair of reins ! What a pretty coachman 

 he must be!' Nevertheless, they are good things in awk- 

 ward hands. Every man who travels the road, has been 

 sickened with the sight of the words ' safe coach ' painted 

 on the different coaches. Give me a safe coachman, and 

 I will not quarrel with the coach ; for the centre of gravity 

 can be lost in a three-legged stool, as well as in the 

 highest ladder. 



A fashion has lately prevailed in the neighbourhood 

 of the metropolis of driving gigs without a whip, than 

 which nothing looks more uncoachmanlike, or absurd. 

 A man in a gig, with his coat over his knees, squaring 

 his elbows with the affectation of a coachman, and all 

 this to manage one horse, cuts but a sorry figure, at best ; 

 but without a whip, he is worse, as he does not know 

 what to do with his right hand. Add to this, danger is 

 often avoided by the use of the whip ; and I am sorry 

 to see some swell coachmen, on the road, have fallen 

 into this uncoachmanlike practice. A man who is driving 

 four horses never knuws what moment he may want his 

 whip, and it never should be out of his hand. But for the 

 whip, I should once have upset sixteen people, when com- 

 ing at a rapid pace down Feather-bed Lane, with Bobart's 



