344 TURNING AND BACKING CH. XIV 



point which must be passed just before reaching a 

 door, the best way is to drive beyond the obstruc- 

 tion, eoingf close to it, and to draw in to the kerb 

 as soon as possible, gradually bringing the horses 

 parallel to the kerb. When all four wheels are 

 parallel to the kerb the coach can be backed straight 

 into its place. 



If, for example, the obstacle projects 6 feet into 

 the street and is 10 feet from the centre of the 

 door, the hind wheels will have to go 20 feet be- 

 yond the obstacle before they will come straight, 

 and the coach must then be backed 14 feet to 

 bring it opposite the centre of the door. 



In backing the horses, they should not be forcibly 

 pulled back, but they should be gathered, by slight, 

 varying pressures, not exactly jerks, and not by a 

 dead pull, and in turning the leaders through the 

 long sweep that they make in going from one lock 

 to the other the handling should be the same ; a 

 dead pull would bring them back ; they should be 

 coaxed round, as it were. 



In ordinary coaching, backing round in a narrow 

 place will not be often required, but if the coach- 

 man finds himself in a road the far end of which 

 is closed, he will be, or should be, mortified if he 

 is not able to turn around promptly and gracefully 

 without help from his grooms, or uncertainty as to 

 the result ; there are sometimes long stretches of 

 road without places sufficiently wide to turn, in the 

 ordinary way, in which the coachman may have to 



