544 The Book of the Horse. 



provided with one or two brilliant lamps. The horse should be driven with a simple or ring- 

 snaffle, according to his mouth. A curb-bit is altogether inadmissible, in consequence of the 

 weight of the long reins. 



INDIA-RUBBER TIRES. 

 India-rubber tires are a great luxury ; they give to a wheeled carriage the smoothness 

 of a sledge on hard snow, and subdue nearly all the rattle and noise of wheels. But they 

 are usually made on a wrong principle. If india-rubber is stretched, every cut continually 

 widens, and the tire is speedily destroyed. Tires made on a directly opposite plan will 

 endure for an unlimited period ; that is, a thick hollow tube of india-rubber shrunk on an 

 iron core shorter than the rubber, and coiled round a wheel grooved to receive it. This kind 

 of india-rubber has been used for many years on two carriages by the late Mr. Allen 

 Ransome, the agricultural implement maker, of Ipswich. 



THE IRISH CAR. 



I hope I may not be considered to have added one more to the grievances of Ireland 

 by declining to treat the Irish car so famed in song, " the low-backed car," as a vehicle worth 

 transplanting from its native soil. With one horse and two wheels the Irish car has one 

 merit — a capacity almost as unbounded as the corricolo of Naples — it will hold as many 

 passengers and as much luggage as the horse can draw. It has another — it is almost im- 

 possible to upset it. But as the latter advantage is shared with numerous types of village 

 carts, and the former cannot be favoured by any " merciful man," the Irish outside car remains 

 a convenient vehicle for pic-nics and fishing excursions — less expensive, but not more sociable 

 than a wagonette. The driver either sits sideways, with the least possible control over his 

 horse, or on a seat in front, which unduly throws weight on the horse's shoulders. 



THE SLEDGE. 



One of the most delightful carriages for a winter in a country house, in any county 

 where the snow lies long enough and deep enough, is a sledge holding two or four, besides 

 a groom perched out of earshot behind, and driven with a single horse, a pair, or a tandem. 

 Sledges are generally imported from Canada or the United States. They are in universal 

 use in Russia, Scandinavia, Poland, Hungary, and Austria, in the winter months. They cost 

 a great deal to fit up in proper style, with furs and bells ; but the mere sledge may be 

 made by any village wheelwright or carpenter, at very little expense. The body should be 

 very light — it does not require the strength of a wheeled carriage of European make — so 

 that it may be handled with ease. A Canadian sledge to hold four vis-a-vis which I pur- 

 chased one summer for .£'5 only weighed 300 lbs. There are many occasions when you have 

 to handle a sledge like a wheelbarrow ; for instance, when you upset it. The harness may 

 be of the simplest character, breast-plates instead of collars ; sash-line rope traces will do 

 very well, as they will be nearly sixteen feet long ; it is scarcely worth while to provide 

 leather traces for a vehicle that can only be used for a few days each time at intervals of 

 two or three years. The only .'-.afe plan for enjoying sledging in England is to have the 

 carriage, harness, and all the paraphernalia stowed away ready for use at a moment's notice. 

 To begin to build or repair a sledge when the first snow-storm appears is to manufacture 

 disappointment. Bells in driving on dark nights are necessary, for the sledge makes no sound ; 

 but sheep-bells, for want of better, will make the needful noise. As the horse is so far from 



