OLD COACHING DAYS. 185 



saving horses' legs ; it may do so to a certain extent, but not 

 nearly so much as some people imagine. I have not found 

 that horses last any longer ; and two of my oldest friends, who 

 have driven four horses all their lives, still take a pride in 

 descending steep hills without any drag at all, and declare that 

 their horses last quite as long as other -people's. Of course, 

 in driving a pair of groggy wheel-horses the drag may save 

 them from coming on their heads when going downhill. 

 Living in a hilly country, I still retain breeching and bearing- 

 reins, and the old drag and chain swung under the coach, as 

 in old days, but I employ the pressure drag as well. There 

 may be many changes yet ; for, 



What can escape Time's all-destroying hand ? 



Where's Troy, and where's the May-pole in the Strand ? 



as somebody wrote years ago. 



But Troy's in Wales, there's no question about that. I 

 quite forget who sang, 



The team trots merrily o'er the road, 



The rattling bars have charms ; 

 Eleven and four is our average load, 



And we change at the Coachman's Arms. 



There was one team in the Brighton Day Mail quite per- 

 fection, three chestnuts, and a brown near wheeler who could 

 trot while all the others galloped, but the horn upset him, and 

 unless held hard he was off like a rocket. Such were some 

 of the quaint experiences of horses which one gained on these 

 old coaches. 



The love of driving was so strongly developed in many en- 

 thusiasts, that when coaching came to an end as a business it 

 began to be followed as a sport or amusement, and I now 

 propose to make a few observations about the pleasure road- 

 coaches, London teams, the meets at the Magazine, and driving 

 generally. 



In 1839, finding that railways would soon put an end to 

 coaching, I was one day much surprised by two old friends 

 calling upon me, and inviting me to purchase their coach, 



