24 DRIVING. 



called his friends into consultation in what strange and 

 forgotten language did they discuss the question of wheels and 

 how to make them turn ? showed them his round sections of 

 tree, and explained the difficulties which had to be solved. 

 Imagine a meeting of the wise men bent on the arduous task 

 of discovering the first crude suggestion of the axle-tree ! We 

 cannot ask the artists to draw the picture, for they would not 

 know whether to clothe the group in the skins of wild beasts 

 or in some species of robe, and then again the sort of tree 

 which was thus cut down would be only guesswork, as no one 

 can tell in what clime the discussion took place. 



All that can be ascertained is that the wheel must have 

 been invented thousands of years before the Christian era, for 

 the reason that when the chariot first makes its appearance in 

 the Egyptian monuments it is so complete that there can be 

 no doubt as to wheeled vehicles having been long in use, 

 not perhaps by the monument-building Egyptians themselves, 

 but by their conquerors the Hyksos and the people whence 

 the Shepherd Kings came. From the first appearance of the 

 chariot we find many representations of wheeled vehicles upon 

 the monuments of Egypt, of Asia Minor, of Greece, and of 

 Rome. These early chariots were primarily used for war, 

 though it is natural to assume that considerable progress in 

 driving and familiarity with wheeled vehicles must have been 

 made before men would risk their lives in battle on anything 

 but their own legs. There is reason to suppose, however, that 

 chariots were used for journeys and for the ordinary purposes 

 for which carriages are employed, and doubtless at a very early 

 period of their existence for races. The same spirit which in 

 this year of grace draws vast crowds to Epsom and Ascot 

 doubtless moved men five thousand years and more ago, though 

 whether in the chariot races spectators backed their fancies, 

 tried to pick out the best team of two, four, or more horses, as 

 the case might be, and to judge whether the superiority of one 

 champion's driving would enable him to beat a somewhat 



