8 DRIVING. 



with tired and jaded horses, it was very often only possible to 

 keep in the road by the use of the whip. Horses have a 

 habit of hanging, so to speak, to one side or the other, to such 

 an extent that nothing but a smart flick over the shoulder or 

 the neck will straighten them, or prevent the vehicle from 

 running into the ditch ; and if, before the days of breaks, 

 a coachman had attempted the wretched modern practice of 

 driving with a rein in each hand, he would most assuredly have 

 upset his load. 



I will now proceed to give some short directions . as to 

 the proper mode of driving four horses, and in doing that I 

 shall cover the ground which otherwise would have had to be 

 covered over a second time as regards the driving of a pair. 



To start from the beginning. In former days coachmen, 

 particularly in public coaches, generally had the whip laid 

 across the wheel-horses' backs and the reins just looped up on 

 the outside terret of the off wheel-horse. This is hardly neces- 

 sary in these days for an amateur on his own coach with his 

 own servants, although he may get his whip broken by putting 

 it into the whip-bucket. The coachman, going to mount in 

 the old fashion, would proceed by taking the leading reins 

 and drawing them to him without actually touching the leaders' 

 mouths, though in order to have ready command over them 

 the touch should only be just avoided. He takes these reins 

 in his left hand and places them on either side of the middle 

 finger of his right hand. He then takes the wheel reins and 

 places them on either side of the third finger of his right 

 hand. In doing this he should have the off-side leading rein 

 and the off-side wheel rein twelve to eighteen inches longer 

 than the near side, and he will then find that when he mounts 

 his box the reins will be level in his hand. With the whip and 

 reins both in the right hand, he must catch hold of the loop 

 hanging from the box, should there be one, or of the lamp iron, 

 raise his left foot to the wheel-box, put his right foot on the 

 outside roller bolt on the splinter-bar, his left foot he will then 

 place on the step, his right foot brings him up to the foot- 



