BEARING REINS, FAST COACHES, AND LINCH-PINS. 239 



the very circumstance of the road being so level and so 

 smooth — there being nothing on its surface to hold the 

 wheels to the ground. Another thing, not generally 

 known or suspected, will cause a coach to swing, and 

 thereby become dangerous ; and that is — if there should 

 be two horses at wheel, whose stride in their gallop 

 differs much as to extent, their unequal draught will in- 

 variably set the coach on the roll ; and unless the pace 

 moderates, even the forewheel passing over a small stone 

 might, under such circumstances, cause her to upset. If 

 it were possible to make the stride and draught of four 

 horses in a coach quite equal, their galloping upon level 

 ground would have very trifling effect on the lateral 

 motion of their coach, as we find to be the case whilst it 

 is ascending a hill, when every horse is at work. Much, 

 however, under all circumstances, depends upon the 

 build of the carriage. The ' Bull and Mouth ' x coaches, 

 though heavy, and not the best to follow, carry their 

 loads extremely well ; but for fast work, those made by 

 Messrs. Wright and Powell, in East street, Clerkenwell, 

 eclipse all, and these builders are now much employed 



1 Perhaps it is not generally known whence this great coach house took 

 its name or sign. — When Henry the Eighth took the town of Boulogne, the 

 event was magnified by the servile flatterers of the day into something so 

 heroic, that the words Boulogne Mouth became a popular subject for signs. 

 Consequently Boulogne Mouth was chosen for the inn in question ; but the 

 name of the inn outliving the fame of the conquest, an ignorant painter was 

 employed, by a still more ignorant landlord, to paint a new sign, when he 

 ingeniously represented Boulogne Mouth harbour by a bull with a wide 

 gaping mouth. This sign may still be seen over the entrance to the ' Bull 

 and Mouth ' yard at the back of the ' Queen ' Hotel (late '■ Bull and Mouth ' 

 Inn). — Ed. 



