326 DRIVING. 



use them to good effect. Probably horses that never have 

 anything but grass and black bread do not require a rein, but 

 it hardly accords with our ideas of driving. The fact is that 

 the post-horses in those countries are like our cart-horses, and 

 answer to 'Come hither,' &c., as ours do. What the French 

 call their 'horses I do not know, but the Germans call all theirs 

 by their colours : Rappen black, Fuchs chestnut, Schimmel 

 white or grey the bay horses I forget. Our carters do not 

 do that, but their range of names is very limited : Captain, 

 Prince, Dragon, Brown, Vilet (Violet), Primrose, and a few 

 other names for the mares, making a short list that is constantly 

 drawn upon. 



We must return for a moment to the postilion, so dif- 

 ferent in size and shape, as well as in so many other things, 

 from his English confrere. His dress and accoutrements have 

 been described. Now about himself. He was almost invari- 

 ably a tall gaunt man of from 5 ft. 10 in. to 6 ft. high, lean in 

 the flank and not heavy for his height, but still weighing between 

 eleven and twelve stone ; and he drove in his rough way re- 

 markably well and safely. With one postilion to four horses 

 from eight to nine miles an hour was the usual pace ; but with 

 two postilions on these short stages you could calculate on 

 travelling at the rate of ten miles an hour, or rather over, includ- 

 ing stoppages. The traces being rope were quickly twisted 

 round the bars, and not being fixed, it did not matter to an 

 inch or two whether they were exactly even or not. The 

 leathern pole-pieces on the pole were quickly slipped through 

 the ring on the breast-plates, and the change was rapidly 

 effected. The postilions were a very civil class, particularly 

 to those who travelled with a courier, many of whom were 

 well known to the postilions on the main routes, as from them 

 they expected a very liberal pourboire, a few centimes more 

 or less making a great difference to them. The P^nglish are 

 credited with being more given to drinking than foreigners ; 

 but whether it is that they call a spade a spade and we do not, 

 or whatever the cause, when we pay a man for driving we call it 



