140 DRIVING AS I FOUND IT. 



driver permits them to do this for two or three miles 

 that the coachman is a bad one or careless. No man 

 can judge of the propriety of his doing so as well as 

 himself. Some horses like to do all the work at first, 

 others at the end of the stage, and in this they must be 

 indulged or they are good for nothing, or would be 

 rendered so. There are horses which never want a 

 touch of the whip over anything lil^e level ground, but 

 are bits of rogues at steep hills. They therefore do 

 their share on the whole, and where they punished to 

 make them work uphill they would perhaps jib and not 

 draw an ounce, probably commence kicking into the 

 bargain. Others, particularly if not quite so fast as 

 their comrades take very little of the load on the flat, 

 but at hills will take half the coach up. This is their 

 forte, and for this their exertions must be reserved. 

 Some for the fi.rst five miles are hasty, and do more 

 than their shai'e, consequently to a certain degree be- 

 come exhausted and work but little for the remainder 

 of the stage. Others only set to work when — in a road 

 phrase — ^'they smell home.'' Then they peg away and 

 pull your arms off unless you let them take half the 

 coach. . Letting horses have their heads, i. e., driving 

 with a loose rein, gives the free ones a chance to do 

 more than their proper share of the ^vork, therefore 

 they get tired sooner. Keeping your horses in hand 



