382 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



cate, they were considered as the effects of popular ex- 

 travagance and the high wages of a disgraceful pro- 

 fession.' I do not attempt to controvert such authority, 

 but it must be borne in mind that the interest taken in 

 the charioteers of Rome shook the very foundations of 

 the government. 



I now take leave of ancient coachmanship. To every 

 one Nature has given some distinguishing bias, and the 

 greater part of mankind are endowed with a capacity for 

 performing, in some degree, in the different exercises 

 invented for our amusement ; but of this fact my readers 

 may be assured, that, until within the last hundred years \ 

 the world never seize a coachman ! As to those of whom 

 I have just been speaking, the form of their carriages, 

 and the mode of putting their horses to them, were ob- 

 stacles to anything like fine execution in the art ; and, 

 although brave and daring in the race, we may be assured 

 they were clumsy fellows with the ribbons, and as to 

 their use of the whip, it was only adapted to pig-driving. 



There is one requisite to make a man, whether gentle 

 or simple, a coachman, and that is what we call on the 

 road, ' hands! 1 By these I do not mean two mutton- 

 fists that would be very useful to a coalheaver, but a 

 certain faculty of touch — regulated doubtless by the 

 nervous influence — the possession or the non-possession 

 of which makes the difference between a £ood and a bad 

 horseman. No man with a hard, heavy hand can ever 



1 Among the ancients, the proper motion of the hands was considered 

 a great accomplishment — so much so, that an awkward disposition of them 

 would have spoiled the noblest piece of oratory at Athens and Rome. 



