290 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



Mr. Christmas. 

 Mr. Claggett. 



Mr. Langs ton. 

 Colonel Sibthorpe. 1 



N.B. Those gentlemen on whom I have here made 

 no remarks, are either so well-known as dragsmen of the 

 first class that nothing requires to be said, or they are 

 only known to me by name. 



ON ACCIDENTS. 



So loner as coaches run, there will and must be acci- 

 dents, but I am quite prepared to show that ninety out of 

 a hundred are the effect of carelessness. I profess no 

 superior skill, but, barring the breaking of an axletree or 

 reins — and in the latter case this can generally be traced 

 to carelessness — I think that, in the present state of the 

 road, I could drive a coach for half a century, and not 

 throw her over. I hav r e worked a great deal, both by 

 night and by day, but never saw an accident with a coach 

 any further than a horse falling down or breaking a leg, 

 and I can only recollect two or three instances of this 

 sort. Let us look at some of the late fatal mishaps that 

 have occurred on the road. The Stroudwater coachman 

 knew he had a hill to go down which required the wheel 

 to be tied. What did he ? Why, he never attempted to 

 pull up his coach till she began to descend the hill, and 

 then, from the great weight that was in her, his horses 



1 M.P. for Lincolnshire. Colonel Sibthorpe drives nothing but greys, 

 and purchases every grey horse likely to come in with his others, that is bred 

 in his neighbourhood. 



