490 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



EXPENSES OF A CARRIAGE AND HORSES — STABLES AND COACH-HOUSES. 



fobbing, when Advantageous — Detailed Cost — Idleness the Bane of Pleasure Horses — Stables — A Dry Foundation — An 

 Impervious Floor — Ventilation Without Draught — Stalls, Boxes — Washing-house — Sheltered Yard— Saddle-room — Lofts and 

 Fodder Stores — Foundation and Drains Described — Best Material for Walls — Mangers — Partitions, Elm-wood — Com Stores, 

 Metal-lined— Water in Iron Buckets^A Tower Reservoir— A Force of Water Valuable — Economical Stables Described — 

 Luxurious Stables — Value of Heating Apparatus and Warm Water Supply— Saddle and Harness Room must be dry — 

 Drawers and Closets for — Modem Contrivances for Stable Use — Model Stables. 



The expenses of setting up a carriage may be divided as follows: — 



I. The purchase of a carriage. 2. Purchase of a horse or horses, and occasional losses 

 by death or sickness. 3. Cost of provender, shoeing, and veterinary attendance. 4. The cost 

 and wear and tear of stable-fittings and tools. 5. The rent of stable and coach-house. 6. The 

 wages and expenses of one or more servants. 



Some of these expenses cannot be estimated. A brougham horse will cost fifty guineas 

 to one hundred guineas, according to the work required. Any sum beyond one hundred 

 guineas is paid for superior beauty and action. A one-horse landau requires a tall, powerful 

 horse of proportionate price. A miniature brougham may be worked with a horse only fifteen 

 hands high. A brougham or landau will cost froin ;£'I20 to ;^I90. A harness horse can be 

 hired for ^^40 to ^50 a year, and replaced immediately if sick or lame. 



A first-class coachmaker will let you a new brougham of any colour you prefer, the panels 

 bearing your own monogram or crest ; he will keep it in perfect order, saving accidents — such 

 as tearing off a door by opening it just as you pass a lamp-post — for ;£'40 a year, paid annually 

 in advance. If the engagement is for five years certain, will give you a nevv carriage at the 

 end of that time. 



In London jobbing is decidedly cheaper than' buying any expensive four-wheeled carriage, 

 which is intended to be continually used. But if it is only to be kept for show on a few days 

 of the year, then it is cheaper to buy. Dog-carts, T-carts, and waggonettes should be 

 purchased out and out. 



It may be taken as an unanswerable maxim in carriage keeping, that it is not the work 

 a pleasure carriage horse does that wears him out, or makes him sick and sorry, but standing 

 about, unnecessarily waiting for hours in draughts, in fog, rain, and snow, and, most of all, 

 being confined to hot stables for day after day without exercise, to save the coachinan trouble, 

 " I have often," says Mrs. Burton,* a perfect " Mistress of the Horse " in every capacity, " felt 

 amused in English country houses, where the host has sixteen or twenty horses, to hear the 

 hostess say almost timidly to her fat powdered coachman — ' Barker, do you think that I might 

 liave the carriage to-day.'' Barker (very crisply) — 'No, my lady, you can't.' Lady (timidly) — 



• "Inner Life of S^■ria." 



