FARMERS' REGISTER-MAIL COACHES AND HORSES IN ENGLAND. 85 



Good hind legs and well spread guskins are also 

 essential points in a coach-horse— tlie Aveight or 

 force applied proceeding from the fulcrum iormed 

 by the hinder leet. The price we liavc named as 

 the average one for such animals may appear a 

 very low one : but we must remember that to be a 

 hunter, a horse must have length of shoulder, length 

 of frame, well placed hinder legs, and a well-bitted 

 mouth — whereas, without any of these qualities he 

 may make an excellent coach-horse — and hence 

 the value of the coach market to our breeders. 

 Blemished horses also find their way into coaches, 

 as do those whose tempers are bad ; neither is a 

 blind horse, with good courage, altogether objec- 

 tionable now the roads are so level. 



It may not be uninteresting to the uninitatcd 

 to learn how a coach is loorked. We will then as- 

 sume that A, B, C, and D, enter into a contract 

 to horse a coacli eighty miles — each proprietor 

 having twenty miles; in which case, he is s?.id 

 to cover both sides of the ground, or to and fro. At 

 the expiration of tv.cnty-eiglit days, the lunar 

 month, a settlemcrit takes place, and if tlie gross 

 earnings of the coach should be £\0 per mile, 

 there will be £800 to divide between the four pro- 

 prietors, after the following charges have b?en de- 

 ducted, viz: tolls, duty to government, iriileage, 

 (or hire of the coach, to the coachmaker,) two 

 coachmen's wages, porter's v/ages, rent or charge 

 of booking-offices at each end, and washing the 

 coaches. These charges may amount to £1.30, 

 which leaves £650 to keep eighty horses and to 

 pay the horse-keepers, for a period twenty -eight 

 days ; or nearly £160 to each proprietor for the 

 expenses of his twenty horses, bcinj £2 per v/eek, 

 per horse. Thus it appears, that a fast coach, pro- 

 perly appointed, cannot pav unless its gross re- 

 ceipts amount to £10 per double mile ; and that, 

 even then, the horscr's profits depend on the luck 

 he haswitli his stock. 



In the present age, the art of mechanism is emi- 

 nently reduced to the prai-tical purposes of life, and 

 the modern form of the stage-coacli seems to have 

 arrived at perfection. It combines prodigious 

 incredible lightness, not 

 about eighteen hundred 

 ept so much nearer the 

 ground than formerly, is of course considerablv sa- 

 ier. Accidents, no doubt, occur, and a gi-eat 

 many more than meet the puldiceye; but how 

 should this be otherwise, when v,e take into ac- 

 count the immense number of coaches on the road, 

 a great portion of which travel through the night, 

 and have all the varieties of our climate to contend 

 with.'' No one will assert that the jiroprietors 

 guard against accidents to the utmost of their pow- 

 er — but the great competition tliey have to encoun- 

 ter is a strong stimulant to their exertions on this 

 score. Indeed, in some respects, the increase of 

 pace has become the traveller's securitv-* Coaches 

 and harness must be of the best quality ; horses 

 must be fresh and sound, and coachmen of science 

 and respectability can only be employed. In fact, 

 to the increased pace of their coaches is the improve- 

 ment in these men's moral character to be attribu- 

 ted. Thej' have not time nov/ for drinking, and 



* To give one iiistarice — the Worcester mnil was one 

 of the slowest on the road and the oftenest overturned. 

 She is nov/ fast, and reckoned onn of the .safest in Eng- 

 land. 



strength with almos 

 Aveighing more than 

 ■weight ; and beinc: \< 



they come in collision with a class of persons su- 

 perior to those who formerly were stage-coach 

 passengers, by whose example it has been impos- 

 sible for them not to profit in all respects. A 

 coachman drunk on his box is now a rarity. A 

 coachman, quite sober, was even within our mem- 

 ory still more so. But let us press this question 

 a little further : do the proprietors guard against 

 accidents to the very extent of their abilitij? We 

 fear, not: too many of them to touch only one point, 

 allow their coachmen to omit the use of the hand 

 or end-lnickle to their reins, which, to our own 

 knowledtje, has lately been productive of innumer- 

 a})le accidents. This is new, and it is a mere 

 piece of atlx3Ctation, and sliould bo put a stop to ; for 

 surely, if a coachman fancies he has not time to 

 ' pin his ribbons' before mountnig the box, he can 

 do so after having proceeded a short distance on his 

 stance ; and he cannot say he has not time to un- 

 buckle them before he come to the end of it. It is 

 evident, that v/ith reins vmbuckled at the ends, 

 siiould either of them drop out of his hand, all com- 

 mand over his team is gone. Moreover, in the 

 hands of the best coachman, a wheel-horse will 

 now and then drop, and should he not, fortunately 

 in this case, be dragged on the ground, so as to 

 stop the coach, up he jumps, and, expectnig the 

 whip, rushes forward with his head loose, his rein 

 having been drawn through the coachman's hand. 

 Had Ft been buckled at the end, such an occur- 

 rence could not have happened ; and if, after our 

 warning, damages are sought for on this score, 

 coach p'i-oprietoi"s may depend on it they must be 

 prepared to smart. 



That, in fact, nineteen accidents in twenty arc 

 the effect of want of proper precaution, cannot be 

 ilcj^ied. — Coachmen, it is true, are not theoretical 

 philosophers, but experience teaches them, that if 

 they drive fast round corners, the centre of gravi- 

 ty must he more or less disturbed by thus diver- 

 o-ing from the right line; and if lost, over she goes, 

 yet^SL great number of the overturns that occur 

 happen exactly in this way. Why then are not 

 coaclinien strictly enjoined by their employers to 

 avoid so gross an error ? But it is in the act of 

 descending hills that the majority of catastrophes 

 take place ; and the coachman needs not book learn- 

 ing to enlighten him so as to the loherefore. Let 

 him only throw up a stone, and watch its descent. 

 If it tails sixteen feet in the first second, it will 

 fall three times that distance in the next, and so on. 

 Tims it is with his coach; the continued impulse 

 it acquires in descending a hill, presses upon the 

 wheel-horses, until at last it exceeds their powers 

 of resistance. — In short, they have a new force to 

 contend with at every step they take. But this 

 is not all. Instead of checking the active force of 

 his coach before she begins to move downward, he 

 too often adds that to the fresh impulse she acquires 

 on her descent. Every coachman, who has a re- 

 gard to the safety of his own neck, should check 

 tiie velocity of his coach at the top of every hill ; 

 v/hich to use the language of tlie road, is termed 

 ' taking a hill in time.' He may, in that case, if 

 his harness be sound, drive his coach down any 

 hill, novvf found in our roads, with ease; and, when 

 a certain way down it, may increase his pace, with 

 perfect safety, to meet the opposing ground at the 

 bottom. With heavily-laden coaches, we prefer 

 this to the drag-chain — by which hundreds of them 

 have been pidled over — and which is a great check 



