The Use of the yoB-MASTER. 247 



of Beaufort used to horse his barouche in the country with four piebalds a la Dauinont, but 

 that was quite an exception. True blacks are rarely met with in great stables, for the 

 same reason perhaps as greys — there are very few black thoroughbred sires. The Earl of 

 Harrington, who married the great actress Miss Foote, was the last nobleman who drove 

 the old black long-tailed coach-horses in his unique equipages — his chariot, or extinct 

 vis-a-vis. Amongst Arabs black is the rarest colour, while grey is the most common. 

 Lord Aveland, true to Lincolnshire fen traditions, drives roans, a very difficult colour to 

 match in large horses. 



This class of harness-horse, in addition to the varying gradations of excellence which 

 exist between the simple utility which satisfies those who never look at their horses and only 

 consider them as machines, and the perfection required either by the taste and ambition 

 or the social position of others, may be divided into coach-horses proper and barouche- 

 horses. 



Barouche-horses are expected to show more blood and quality, to be better travellers, and 

 would be selected for a suburban visit rather than grand elephantine-stepping coach-horses ; 

 indeed, the best barouche-horses are very like the best hunters. 



The system of jobbing large carriage-horses, which has been in existence for more than 

 half a century, has within the last twenty years assumed extraordinary proportions. 



In the first place, as already explained, the same class of horse is not required in town as 

 in the country ; in the next, space has become so valuable in the metropolis that very few- 

 establishments can obtain the stabling necessary for horsing the carriages required daily in 

 season for morning concerts, garden parties, shopping, dinner parties, operas, and a succession 

 of balls and receptions. Less than four horses, probably six, would not do the season's work 

 of a family with daughters which lives in the full swing of a London season. But besides 

 the carriage-horses, there are three or four riding-horses, perhaps a pair of high-priced mail 

 phaeton or park phaeton horses, which require room. A stable to accommodate half a dozen 

 horses is pretty large. In town stalls for a dozen could only be provided at extravagant 

 expense, not counting the outlay of the horses not required for daily use, but which must 

 be provided to take the place of one lame or sick, if the head of the family decides to drive 

 nothing but his own horses. 



In this dilemma the job-master appears as the deus ex viachina, and provides for a fixed 

 sum per pair not only one or more pairs of horses, but undertakes to replace any one disabled, 

 at any hour of the day or night. For ^^loo a year, or £'20 a month in the season, a pair of 

 first-class horses are provided ; and for thirty-five shillings a week in addition they may be 

 fed, foddered, and shod. The conveniences of the system have caused its adoption by many 

 noble families who a few years ago would disdain the idea of hiring horses. Under the jobbing 

 system, in the height of the season, one pair of stalls will hold in turn all the horses that can 

 be used in one carriage. 



In the "Post-Office Directory" for 1873, the names of one hundred and forty persons 

 calling themselves job-masters appear. Some of them, no doubt, are in a very small way of 

 business, but there are two who each job five hundred pairs of horses, besides single brougham 

 and victoria horses ; there are others who job over one hundred each. The stables of these 

 are open to supply the sudden demands of their customers all night during the season. 



Formerly the great job-masters never dreamed of purchasing any horse under 15 hands 

 3 inches, the preference being for at least 16 hands ; but now the popularity of light single 

 broughams and victorias, many of them hired from the coach-builders for the season, compels 



