USE OF THE WHIP. 335 



times, however, on a wet day, a thong will lap around 

 some of these things so fast as to make it necessary for 

 the guard, or some person, to get down to untie it. This 

 is technically called having a bite. The double thong 

 will also sometimes hitch in the ends of the wheelers' 

 traces, as also in the point of the false belly-band. To 

 obviate this, in gentlemen's harness, these parts are 

 always covered, or piped as we call it. 



I shall dismiss the subject of whipping coach horses 

 with these few hints : — One of the best proofs of a 

 good coachman is to see his right arm still ; and although 

 for the safety of his coach, he ought to be able to punish 

 a horse when he requires punishment, yet he should, on 

 all accounts, be as sparing of it as he can. Horses may 

 be whipped till they become callous to whipping, and 

 therefore slow ; and, in the condition in which coach-horses 

 are now kept, a pound of Nottingham whipcord will last a 

 good coachman his life-time. The very act of throwing 

 the point of the thong over the leaders' head or let- 

 ting it fall on their backs, as a fisherman throws his fly 

 upon the stream, will set half the coach horses in 

 England, in these days, into a gallop. 



One more caution, I find, I have overlooked : — A 

 free leader should not be hit in a short turn, or he may 

 break his bar. I hit one once, and he broke, not only 

 his bar but the pole-hook ; and I have seen the main 

 bar broken in this way. Neither should leaders be hit 

 in o-oino- over a small bridge which is much raised, or 

 when the pole points upwards ; their draught on the end 

 of it may snap it in the futchels. 



