336 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



The manufacture of four-horse whips is now arrived 

 at great perfection, and affords employment to many 

 hundred hands. 



DIRECTIONS FOR DRIVING. 



All practical arts are facilitated by rules ; and, after all, 

 what are rules for the acquirement of any art, but the 

 observations of others collected into a small compass ? 

 As far as my knowledge and experience have led me, 

 the following remarks may be found worthy of notice, 

 and I offer them for the benefit of the inexperienced. 



He who has made a good beginning has half finished 

 his work, 1 and this applies to driving coach horses. 

 Harness them well and they are much easier driven. It 



is also with coach horses as it is with mankind the 



physical strength is in the governed, therefore we must 

 humour them a little. When starting a coach, don't pull 

 at their heads, but feel their mouths lightly, or they may 

 bolt, throw themselves down, or break through their 

 harness. If old horses, and the stage commences with a 

 hill to go down, let them feel their legs for two hundred 

 yards before they are put to their usual pace. When in 

 a turn, point your leaders well — that is, take proper 

 ground for them to make the turn, and let your wheelers 

 follow them. As wheel-horses are always in a hurry to 

 make the turn, shoot them out to the contrary side, just 



1 ' Dimidium, qui bene ccepit, habet.' — Ovid. 





