INTRODUCTION. 3 



reins make a great difference to the comfort of the coachman, 

 and their size must depend on the length of his fingers and the 

 size of his hands. Also the fit of a man's gloves a subject 

 dealt with in its place is an important item in the comfort 

 or discomfort of driving. 



And now supposing everything to be all right for a start, our 

 coachman, always with reins in hand, mounts his dogcart 

 or buggy. When he wants to start, ' Let him go ! ' or a nod 

 to the ostler or helper or groom at the horse's head, should be 

 simultaneous with drawing his reins shorter, and just feeling 

 his horse's mouth lightly, thus giving the animal ' the office ' 

 to start. Here we may remark that this is the correct mode 

 of starting all horses in harness, whether one, two, or four. 

 Our coachman, starting with the reins in his left hand and 

 his whip in his right, must bear in mind that nature gave him 

 that left hand for this particular purpose, and that the right 

 hand has no sort of business to touch the reins, except for the 

 purpose of shortening or lengthening one or both of them, or 

 of supporting the left hand, should it require assistance ; and 

 that when the right hand renders this assistance, it should do 

 so in such a manner as to be able to leave go again without 

 altering the length of either of the reins. That dreadful sight, 

 which is to be seen a hundred and more times every day 

 in the streets of London, of gentlemen and their coachmen 

 (gardeners, I ought to say) driving one or a pair with their hands 

 close up to their noses, and a rein in each hand, the two hands 

 being from six to twelve inches apart, is enough to give anyone, 

 with the least notion of how a man should drive, a fit of the 

 shivers. 



Watch them ! See the man with the gold hatband, with 

 a very long crop to his whip, light-coloured with dark knots 

 all the way up, and at the end of his thong a red whipcord 

 lash (horror !) see him fetch the old brougham horse one 

 from his ear to his high goose rump. Mark the effect ! The 

 off rein being held with the whip in the right hand, there 

 comes suddenly two, feet of slack on that rein. , Our poor 



B 2 



