142 DRIVING. 



out, but I said, ' Sit still and don't speak : he will soon tire of 

 kneeling ; ' in two or three minutes, when all the other carriages 

 were gone, he got up and trotted home as usual. I then took 

 him to London, where I drove him for another year ; I never 

 once struck him, as he never required it, and would no doubt have 

 resented it. I once bought a horse very pleasant with hounds, 

 excepting when the huntsman was drawing a covert and cheer- 

 ing them ; he hated the human voice, and the moment the 

 huntsman began to cheer, he began to rear. Once he reared so 

 high that I thought he must have fallen backwards ; however, 

 both stirrup leathers became detached from the saddle, and the 

 rider slipped over his tail, after which, the horse righted. I sold 

 him, and he made a most perfect leader in a team for seven 

 years, after which he ended his days in a little low four wheeled 

 carriage, driven by a lady who doated on him. 



Driving with a friend in a gig one night from London to 

 Windsor, we changed horses at Hounslow, having sent one on 

 in the morning when we came up. Of course, I ought to have 

 looked to see that all was right a precaution nobody should 

 neglect but I failed to do so, being so accustomed to the horse, 

 the road, and the ostler. It so happened that when just outside 

 the town, the animal, being very fresh indeed, as a rule, horses 

 are gay at night unfortunately broke into a canter. The ostler 

 had put him too near the carriage, the back-band behind all 

 the stops, instead of between the stops on the shafts (a fact 

 which should convey a hint to amateur drivers, and not to them 

 only); the gig ran against him and frightened him, and away he 

 went for four miles. The Bath waggons which were coming up 

 loomed large, but it was a fine moonlight night, and the good 

 animal never once kicked, although next morning his hocks and 

 hind legs were quite raw, and he required a fortnight's rest. Once 

 during the gallop I asked my placid friend sitting beside me to 

 take a pull at the reins and try to help me stop the horse ; his 

 reply was, 'Help you stop the horse! not I, my dear fellow, the 

 faster he gallops the sooner we shall be at home, and I want to 

 get to bed.' I think it right to add that my kind friend was one 



