QUO USQUE TANDEM? 169 



powers conferred upon him by the rules of the club, could 

 gather six tandems together, he would take them to the drill 

 ground on the Common and draw them up after the manner of 

 a troop of horse artillery, and then put them through every 

 evolution that a troop was ever capable of performing. This 

 was the more easy, as the command consisted almost entirely 

 of gunners, if they were not all drivers. Certain it is that these 

 drills made horses and men so handy, that road-work soon 

 came to be looked upon as mere child's play, and the distant 

 expeditions were conducted with great confidence. Mercifully 

 no accident of any importance to man or material occurred, 

 and whether or not tandem-driving be of any practical value, 

 an immense deal of very harmless fun and amusement was got 

 out of it. How long the Tandem Club lasted is not recorded : 

 certainly the vehicles could not have held together much 

 longer ; and the original members were soon scattered all over 

 the globe, as they never had been over the neighbourhood of 

 Woolwich. Many are not (for the lapse of thirty years pro- 

 duces many gaps in the ranks of old comrades), and of those 

 that remain, perhaps not one could be dragged back to his box 

 by wilder horses than he ever drove in his youth. 



There is no reason, however, why a tandem should be a 

 particularly dangerous or useless mode of conveyance. Let any- 

 one while he is young and has strong and steady nerves, a 

 quick eye and patience to learn his business thoroughly, try it, 

 and perhaps he will not repent. Let him begin by learning 

 the uses, places and combination of the harness to the last 

 buckle. Then, if he can find a good professor, let him sit 

 beside him, watch, listen and learn. When he feels confident 

 that he can set up on his own account, let him possess himself 

 of a stout dogcart, a steady well-bitted wheeler, and a free 

 leader in a ring snafHe, and, above all, an active and sober 

 groom. Then he may go far and certainly might fare worse. 

 Nothing could well be more pleasant than for two great friends 

 who did not quarrel more than three times a day to make 

 a tour through a hilly district where (pace the horse-dealer) 



