240 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



by the gentlemen dragsmen of the present day. The 

 form of their coaches, having their boots dropped as low 

 as possible between the springs, is very much in favour 

 of safe travelling, by keeping the weight as near the 

 ground as it can be placed ; and the excellent manu- 

 facture of their springs is a most material preventive of 

 a coach rolling, and thereby losing its equilibrium. 



It never happened to me but once to be all but over- 

 turned, merely by the rapid motion of a coach, on the 

 finest and smoothest bit of road in England ; and this 

 was owing to the cause I have already spoken of — the 

 unequal stride of two horses at wheel. The lateral 

 motion of the coach at first was trifling ; but she soon 

 began to roll to that degree that the passengers — myself 

 amongst the rest — thought she must go over, and were 

 greatly alarmed. Fortunately for us all, the centre of 

 gravity was not lost, and she kept her legs ; but had she 

 not been in the hands of a very skilful driver, over she 

 must have gone, and for this reason — had he complied 

 with the requests of his passengers to pull his horses 

 short nothing could have saved her, as by so doing he 

 would have thrown the weight still more upon the fore 

 wheels ; but his presence of mind did not forsake him, 

 and his skill saved us. Instead of attempting to restrain 

 the speed of his horses, in a body, he only eased his 

 leaders, and took away all draught from the head of 

 pole, which would there have acted like the tail to a 

 paper kite, and sent us all to perdition. When the coach 

 recovered her equilibrium — which was one of the happiest 

 moments of my life — our coachman sai k that so near was 



