234 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



regard for our own species must prevail, and no horse in 

 a coach or a post-chaise is safe without a bearing rein ; 

 and for this reason, he is in constant danger, from having 

 his head at liberty, of losing his bridle, by rubbing his 

 head against the pole, or against the other horse, and 

 then an accident is almost sure to happen, as was the 

 case with the York ' Highflyer' coach l last year, by which 

 a woman lost her life. To this must be added the 

 certainty of his being the more likely to fall, which I 

 have, I think, clearly proved in a former letter. As to 

 any comparison holding between our road horses and 

 those on the Continent, I cannot admit it, as the animals 

 are of such a different description. Theirs are only one 

 remove from the cart horse ; ours, three parts, if not 

 quite, thoroughbred, and at least one- third of them have 

 been either hunters or race horses. I know that here 

 and there is to be found an advocate for no bearing rein 

 — Mr. Ward, for instance, a good coachman of the Old 

 School, but slow as to pace — and I had a pretty good 

 taste of it last winter, when staying with Sir Bellingham 

 Graham in Shropshire. He took it into his head to drive 

 a pair of wheelers without bearing reins, and neither the 

 baronet nor myself can soon forget the strain on the 

 muscles of our arms when driving those horses, and how 

 glad we were sometimes to change places. To so ex- 

 perienced a coachman as himself I did not intrude my 

 opinion, much less attempt to instruct him ; but had I 

 been the owner of the gallant little cropped horse that 



1 This very old-established and excellent coach is the one celebrated by 

 the inimitable Hogarth. 



