ON ACCIDENTS. 295 



instead of weakening- them, as before. Boxes being upon 

 springs also are greatly in favour of axletrees, as the 

 weight is so much more alive upon them than it was 

 upon the old principle. 



I was once in a singular, and at the same time most 

 dangerous situation on a coach box, the effect of larking, 

 or, at all events, it might have been avoided. I was 

 driving a very fast coach, and saw a large broad-wheel 

 cart before me, in the middle of the road, with the carter 

 asleep in the bed of it. By way of awakening him, I 

 double-thonged him, as I would a wheel horse, as I 

 passed him, and the whistle of my whip set his horses 

 off. There was one in the shafts, with two abreast as 

 leaders ; and as ill luck would have it, the chain trace of 

 the off-leader in the cart caught upon my near-side roller- 

 bolt. The consequence was, both carriages were locked 

 together, and it was impossible to disengage them. The 

 cart-horses went as fast as they could gallop ; and the 

 rattling of their empty cart so alarmed my horses that I 

 had the greatest difficulty in regulating my pace by theirs, 

 and if I had not they must have pulled me over. The 

 cart horses got blown at last, when we all pulled up to- 

 gether; and fortunately they went nearly straight, or a 

 dreadful accident must have happened. I had a friend 

 on the box with me who had just recovered from a 

 nervous fever, and it was almost the death of him. 



I have to record another very singular accident to a 

 coach which also might have been prevented. It was 

 upset into an immense heap of straw, with the lamps lit ; 

 but fortunately the glass of the lamp next the straw, did 



