Harness and Drivers. 527 



appearance depends more on the way he carries his head and neck than on his height at the 

 shoulder. 



As to colour, the purchaser of a brougham horse has much more range than the purchaser 

 of a pair. If the sight and action are right, any colour will do, but the more extraordinary 

 the colour, the more necessity for fine action. As a rule, the owner of only one horse should 

 not choose a piebald or skewbald ; nor, if he keep only one man, a light grey, for a light 

 grey requires half a man more to clean than any other colour. But where a carriage is much 

 used at night, white is a good colour for the coachman to find in a long rank, and a good 

 colour to drive through dark lanes, as it reflects the light of the lamps, and leaves no excuse 

 for the drivers of carts returning from market. 



BROUGHAM HARNESS. 



Brougham single harness should have a rather solid style, a full-sized pad, traces fairly 

 broad, and where a kicking-strap is used — as it always should be with a mare — long breech- 

 ing. Where breeching is really required to hold up a carriage, the short is considered the 

 most effective ; but the general introduction of the patent brake has rendered breeching neces- 

 sary only for backing. A tall horse in a full-sized brougham does not, as a rule, look well 

 "naked of leather;" his stately proportions seem to harmonise with a good deal of harness. 

 In a miniature brougham the horse may be small if he carries his head well, and the harness 

 light. 



The metal-work may be silver, brass, or covered. Brass, to look well and wear well, 

 must be of the best quality, and solid. It requires more work to keep clean and bright 

 than silver. Brass harness is in England the royal and truly aristocratic style. Where 

 there is only one man in the stable, the less metal-work he has to clean the better. Metal- 

 work covered with leather, except where there is friction, or japanned black, may be relieved 

 from any funereal suspicions by a gay saddle-cloth, coloured rosettes, and frontispiece to 

 the bridle. 



THE DRIVER OF A BROUGHAM. 



The brougham, besides saving at least .£'100 on original cost, as compared with a 

 chariot, dispensed with one horse and a footman, reduced the rank of driver, and rendered it 

 possible even in families of high social condition to employ a much less important personage 

 in a less expensive costume. The driver of a brougham wears a round hat (no wig) top- 

 boots or gaiters, or, quite as often, trousers. The last is a modern innovation which cannot 

 be sanctioned in the coachman of a chariot, barouche, or coach. 



A brougham may be driven by a youth ; and, if not too short, a lad of eighteen who 

 really can drive looks a great deal better on the box of a single miniature brougham than 

 his respectable welter-weight parent. But this presumes that the stable-work is done by a 

 man of full age, and size, and strength. It takes a strong man in hard condition to put 

 the best polish on a regularly-worked harness-horse. One man may manage a carriage 

 and pair of horses, but only on condition that appearance is sacrificed to utility, and that 

 the equipage is rarely required two days running. The varnish of a carriage soon suffers if 

 not cleaned as soon as returned to the coach-house, at however late an hour ; and one man 

 cannot do that. Horses of good constitution will feed and do well with very little groom- 

 ing ; but they can never look so blooming as those to which one stout strapper gives his 

 undivided attention twice a day. 



In towns where stable-rent is very high, and only one horse and carriage are kept, it is 



