128 DRIVING. 



thong flies into its proper place as though by magic. You 

 begin to abuse yourself for being so stupid as to have been so 

 long over the job, which now seems so easy, and ever after you 

 will find it the easiest thing to do. No rules can be followed, 

 but it will come all the quicker if you will never try to catch 

 your thong with your stick. Throw the latter right away to 

 your right front, the thong will follow after it and will soon 

 catch it itself. It is a bad habit to catch your thong over 

 your head, because, although it may be extremely pretty in 

 Piccadilly and in some parts of the Park, yet there are places 

 wherein by doing so thoughtlessly you might get fast in the 

 bough of a tree, in which dilemma it is always best to let your 

 whip go and send back for it, otherwise you may break your 

 thong and also greatly interfere with the head decorations of 

 your passengers. l 



When you have caught your thong, take the lower part of it 

 from the loop which it makes a little more than half-way up the 

 stick, and place it down in your right hand; or else, if you leave 

 it as originally caught, the first time you hit a wheeler the whole 

 thong will come undone. Always hit a wheeler in front of his 

 pad on the point of the shoulder (inside or out) for choice, 

 but never hit one over the head or ears, unless you think he is 

 going to kick, or has already begun to do so, when nothing is 

 half so effective as a few sharp cuts with the double thong over 

 the ears. 



If your thong gets fast in the buckles of the belly-band, 

 false belly-band, tug, or elsewhere, do not try to pull it back ; 

 drop your hand and try to push it forward, it will soon come 

 loose. Always hit your leaders under the bars, because it will 

 prevent your getting caught, also your leaving a mark of dirt 

 from the point of your thong on their flanks. If a near- wheeler 

 does not like the whip going round him to the leader in front 



1 I disagree with this. No one would try so to catch his whip under trees, 

 but it is the least noisy way of catching a whip, and with nervous wheel-horses 

 on the alert for the slightest sound it is most useful ; but there are not many 

 men who can do it. B. 



