STANHOPES AND FASHIONABLE CARRIAGES. 229 



Oxford coach. The near leader shied at a wheel-barrow, 

 which was by the road-side, and having a dead mouth, 

 forced his partner up the opposite bank. Having my 

 whip at hand, I hit the other horse sharply under the 

 bar, and being a good whipped one, he brought his 

 partner into his place again, before the coach could 

 follow him. ' All right ! ' said Bobart, who was on the 

 roof, with a significant shake of his head, as much as to 

 say, ' It was very near being all wrong.' For my own 

 part, I would not travel with a coachman (however clever 

 he may be), on some roads, who makes a practice of stick- 

 ing his whip on the coach, instead of having it in his 

 hand. 



Having had my share of accidents out of gigs, it may 

 not be amiss to state a few precautions. Nothing is so 

 likely to make a horse kick, as being pinched by any 

 part of the harness — particularly the pad. Road coach- 

 men are so aware of this, that a new-fashioned pad is 

 getting into use among them, coming almost to a conical 

 point in the centre, instead of preserving* the semi-circular 

 form. This prevents the possibility of any pressure on 

 the backbone, between which and the withers of the 

 horse there is a strong sympathetic feeling. When 

 wrung in either of those places, he betrays more evident 

 symptoms of uneasiness than if galled on the shoulder, 

 or any other part, and his patience, under the injury, 

 is oftentimes exhausted. He then sets to work to 

 relieve himself, and, too often, kicks himself out of his 

 harness. 



It is to the above-mentioned circumstances that I 



