526 The Book of the Horse. 



are used with the leather side uppermost in hot, and the cloth in cold weather Satin, in 

 brilliant colours — blue, pink, rose, and even white — has occasionally been employed by those 

 with whom expense was " no object." But such extravagances are confined to the few. 



A number of convenient details have been added to modern close carriages, such as a 

 speaking-tube for communicating with the coachman, a lamp for reading at night, a footstool 

 to be filled with warm water in winter, a mirror craftily concealed, in which a lady may give 

 a final touch to her head before arriving at a country house after a long drive, and door-locks 

 that open and shut like those of a drawing-room. 



All the latest inventions of the kind, whether useful or merely new and expensive, may 

 be studied in a visit to the show-rooms of our most fashionable builders, or to the carriage 

 bazaars of Belgravia or Baker Street, where sometimes at the close of the season very handsome 

 equipages, purchased on credit, are to be sold at a "frightful sacrifice for cash." 



Although, by occasional flashes of fashion, broughams are painted in bright and even 

 gay colours, where only one is kept it is better to adhere to sombre shades. Bright colours 

 suit only bright days. What would be suitable to the season in Paris would look as much 

 out of place for nine months out of twelve in England as a summer paletot in winter. Where 

 taste or fashion is an object, the colour of the carriage and livery (if any) of the coachman 

 should harmonise. Gaiety may be given to the more sombre hues by harness rich in metal 

 ornament, by gay-coloured saddle-cloths, and rosettes. 



THE BROUGHAM HORSE. 



Every sort of horse may be seen in broughams : heavy brutes just fit for Pickford's vans ; 

 light weeds, more suited to a butcher's flying cart ; prancing girafies, that, if black, would be 

 in place in a mourning coach ; plodding cobs, travelling with necks poked out like a harnessed 

 pig. Fortunately, many people are content with anything that will draw them, and no more 

 think of looking at the form of a horse than at that of a locomotive steam-engine. 



But the brougham-horse proper, although he may have many defects, should have certain 

 qualities. He may carry such an exaggerated forehead as to make riding him out of the 

 question ; but he should stand well, in a noble attitude, and should move with a certain grandeur 

 of action, the very opposite of the quick sharp pace of a mail-phaeton pair. He may have 

 an ugly head, which can be concealed in a very elaborate bridle, and a shabby tail, which 

 can be supplied by a false one, but he must carry both well. In a full-sized brougham, 

 weight is indispensable ; in a light, single, or miniature brougham, a blood-horse is more 

 appropriate. In either case the size of the horse should be in harmony with the size of the 

 carriage. It is as great an error in taste to use a large beast like a camel, almost lifting the 

 fore-wheels off the ground if he make an extra stride, as to have a horse so small, and working 

 with his neck so low, that he is lost in the shafts. If full of courage he will very soon be 

 worn-out by over-weight. 



A brougham intended to carry at least four persons inside should have a horse able to 

 trot away with it easily at the rate of eight miles an hour, which is pace enough on the 

 stones for any family party. There is nothing in worse taste, although it is often seen in 

 the more fashionable quarters of London, than a small brougham, a massive coachman and 

 a gigantic footman in full liveries, and a pair of si.xteen-hands barouche horses before them. 



The broughams which require a single horse from 15 hands 2\ inches to 15 hands 3 

 inches will be properly horsed by a pair of well-bred, well-crested horses of from 14 J to 15 

 hands. Always supposing that a horse has power enough for the weight behind him, his 



