3o8 DRIVING. 



both horses had fallen over him. In the struggle on the ground 

 the harness-strap or buckle of the riding-horse broke, and let 

 him clean out of his harness, all excepting his bridle and 

 saddle ; the hand-horse's traces slipped over his back, he got 

 under the pole, and rose up on the wrong side of it. No 

 damage was done, the harness was all there, attached to the 

 pole-piece and roller-bolts, so the horses were quickly put to, 

 and off they went. The reader will say, ' Is this the way you 

 illustrate the safety of travelling by post?' Exceptions, how- 

 ever, are said to prove the rule, and such an occurrence as this 

 was quite exceptional. 



The great post-horse proprietors, all keepers of hotels and 

 inns, used to have in their stables thirty or forty pairs of horses, 

 and a postboy and cad to each four horses, the whole super- 

 intended by an experienced ostler ; these proprietors would 

 not keep a postboy who did not drive well. The ' boys ' were 

 brought up to it from childhood a strong small hardy race of 

 men, about the size of the modern flat-race jockey. They 

 learnt how to drive by riding the leaders, the wheel-boys talk- 

 ing to them and instructing them as they went along. They 

 were generally the sons of the older postboys ; many of them 

 were what are popularly called ' characters ' in their way, and 

 they were very good judges of the company they had to drive. 

 I remember some fifty years ago a celebrated postboy, at 

 Newman's in London, driving Lord FitzRoy Somerset from 

 his house in Stanhope Street, Mayfair, to the George Inn at 

 Hounslow. Whilst they were changing horses the old ostler 

 approached Lord FitzRoy, touched his hat, and said, 'Old 

 Tippoo brought you down, my Lord, I see. He is a rare judge 

 of his company, he is rattled you down in forty-five minutes. 

 Why, if it had been an old lady he had been driving, he would 

 have taken an hour and forty-five minutes toddling her down ! 

 A rare judge of his company he is ! ' 



Now there was much truth in this. Had he * rattled ' the 

 old lady down in forty-five minutes, he would have frightened 

 her to death, and she would have given him nothing ; knowing 



