122 DRIVING. 



an inch and an eighth, an inch and a quarter, and even more. 

 Medio tutissimus ibis is here the best motto. About half-way 

 between extremes will be found the best, say about an inch 

 and a quarter, of moderate thickness ; if too thick they will 

 be clumsy, and too much of a handful ; if too thin they 

 will quickly get so soft, especially in wet weather, that it will 

 be found impossible to push them back, and they become 

 a perfect nuisance. The hand-pieces of both leaders' and 

 wheelers' reins must, of course, be of identically the same 

 breadth and strength. Side reins, which may be buckled 

 either outside a leader or wheeler to his own trace buckle, or 

 inside to his partner's, are all very well in their way with 

 incorrigible brutes, but are seldom, if ever, seen in a private 

 team. 



And now we have got the team put to we must get on the 

 road. Some coachmen, before mounting the box, have their 

 whip put across their wheelers' backs, but this is quite unneces- 

 sary. The whip is much safer in its socket ; it is far easier for 

 the driver to get up without it in his hand, and the careless 

 carrying of it there has been the cause of a great number of 

 mishaps. The simplest, quickest, and easiest way of getting 

 on to the box is to place the reins in your left hand in the 

 same order as when driving, taking them up from your wheelers' 

 backs, where they have been placed ready, tucked in just in 

 front of the buckle of the off-wheeler's pad that is to say, the 

 wheelers' reins should be separated by the middle finger, the 

 leaders' by the forefinger ; thus the near-leader's rein will be 

 on the top of all, the near-wheeler's and off-leader's together 

 between the top and middle fingers, and the off-wheeler's 

 bottom of all, between the middle and third finger. Standing, 

 of course, by the side of your off- wheeler, draw all your reins 

 quietly till you just feel your horses' mouths, then with your 

 right hand pull the two off-reins out of your left, a foot or 

 perhaps a little more to the front, and with the reins thus 

 apparently looking uneven, pass them into your right hand, 

 keeping the position of the reins the same, and with the 



