230 



LEAD-REIX 



CH. XI 



third fingers. Its buckle was not in the middle, 

 where it would have been in the way, but a few 

 inches to one side, on the off rein. It went out of 

 use about 1825, being considered dangerous, be- 

 cause, should a wheeler fall, the coachman might 

 be pulled off his box ; and it was, no doubt, fre- 

 quently too short or too long, and in either case 

 inconvenient. 



According to ' Nimrod' (Essays, p. 208), the ma- 

 jority of coachmen in the early part of this century, 

 drove with a short wheel-rein, and he discusses the 

 question pro and con through four pages, but it is 

 now only a matter of history, since it has gone 

 entirely out of fashion. According to him (Essays, 

 p. 285), Sir Philip Agar used a short wheel-rein 

 when he drove his coach at a trot round the fox 



which stood in the centre of 

 Tattersall's old yard ; a feat 

 referred to in several of the 

 coaching books. 



The wheel horses are kept to- 

 gether by the pole-chains, but 

 since the lead horses are quite 

 free, one of them, by shying sud- 

 denly, can pull his coupling-rein 

 with the buckle and a part of 

 the draught-rein, through his 

 partner's pad-terret, where it 

 becomes jammed, with every chance of causing an 

 accident. To prevent this, a piece of steel, about 



Fig. 109. 



