CH. XIV TAKING DOWN THE WHIP 329 



with no serious results, which made a deep im- 

 pression upon me. For a public-coach, there should 

 always be a block with a long handle, ready to be 

 put under the wheel, at the changes, but this is 

 sometimes forgotten, and a habit of putting on the 

 brake diminishes danger. The only reason for not 

 putting it on appears to be that it is thought to 

 look rather slow. 



Corbett (p. 55) says, apropos of an accident 

 which happened from the horses' running away from 

 a change place at Colchester, July 1839 : ' Probably 

 ' this accident would not have occurred if the coach 

 ' had been fitted with a brake, which the coachman 

 4 ought to put on tight before leaving his box.' 



What should be done with the whip, on getting 

 down, is also a good deal discussed. On some 

 public-coaches the coachman throws it across the 

 horses' backs before getting down ; this requires 

 practice, and the whip is very likely to fall on the 

 ground, and get muddv, or broken ; on others, the 

 coachman throws it to a man waiting to receive it. 

 It ought not to be put into the whip socket, or 

 bucket, which indeed many coaches very properly 

 are without. In the socket, it is in the way of get- 

 ting up and down, and is likely to be broken by 

 some one's taking- hold of it. It should be taken 

 down by the coachman ; and there seems, on the 

 whole, no better way of disposing of it than to lay 

 it across the wheelers' backs, unless, as has been 



