386 The Book of the Horse. 



I cannot help thinking that on roads of not more than thirty miles, worked as they are 

 now only in the summer season, the stage-coach pattern is not advisable, for outside places are 

 more in demand than inside on short journeys. A good kind of cliar-d-banc, purchased by Sir 

 Talbot Constable, was built by Bennett of Ipswich ; something of the sort, with all outside seats 

 and the luggage in a well, would probably, prove a great success if introduced by a man of fashion. 



AMERICAN TROTTING. 



In England the most costly horse is a race-horse, for the simple reason that a race-horse 

 can win more money in a shorter period than any other kind of horse while on the turf, and 

 earn more as a stallion, if successful, on retiring from the turf. Race-horses in England are 

 maintained as a trade by the many, and as an amusement by the few. A gentleman by birth 

 and education, who would think himself degraded by keeping a shop or a public-house, has no 

 hesitation in embarking in the financial and financing business of owning and betting on race- 

 horses, associating with blacklegs, employing "touts" (i.e., spies) to report on his rivals' horses, 

 and agents to bet against his own. 



Other pleasure horses, whether hunters, harness, or hacks, are not valued so much for mere 

 speed as for other qualities. The park hack of great price may be even slow. The priceless 

 harness-horses of the stately barouche, or even the fast mail phaeton, would seem to stand still 

 alongside a third-class American trotter. The perfect, thorough-bred hunter, the pride of a 

 Leicestershire stable, may have been, or would be hopelessly distanced in a cup race at Ascot 

 or Goodwood. It is his fencing, his figure, and his gentlemanly manners, that raise his price to 

 three large figures. 



In a word — anything like hurry and bustle, except in the case of a good start from cover- 

 side in a pasture country, are distasteful and foreign to the ideal of noble and fashionable 

 English life. As for trotting for money, it is only pursued and patronised by a class of 

 gamblers of the very lowest order. Why, it is difficult to decide, because there is nothing more 

 disreputable in cheating in a trot than cheating in a gallop ; but so it is. No lady is ever 

 seen at the trotting-matches which take place near London, and, unless by rare exception, no 

 gentleman. If one or two are tempted by curiosity to witness this very exciting amusement, 

 if wise, they leave their watches and purses at home. 



In the United States the roads near great cities, usually of soft sand, are suited to the 

 amusement. On the hard English macadamised roads a trotter would be worn out in a few 

 weeks. 



America produces hickory and other woods tougher and lighter than any grown in other 

 countries ; and of these American mechanics produce marvellous specimens of ingenuity in 

 strength and lightness, in two-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles. 



As drivers of trotting races the Americans cannot be excelled, if equalled ; but the profes- 

 sional st}-le which is copied by young gentlemen driving out to display their five hundred and 

 thousand pound harness-horses is to English eyes hideous, presenting the maximum of dis- 

 comfort and muscular exertion. The horse or horses pull their hardest against the driver, while 

 he, leaning back, with his legs planted firmly against an iron bar, with the reins wrapped 

 round each hand, does the work which with us is performed by the roller-bolts or spliutcr- 

 bars. It is true that the author of " The Trotting Horse of America " * condemns " holding 



* Hiram WoodruflTs "American Trotting Horse," edited by Charles Foster, of Wilkes' Spirit o) the Times, and dedicated to 

 Mr. Robert Bonner ; a most aniubing book. 



