MODERN CARRIAGES. 357 



and the rotonde. There were two wheelers, and three leaders, 

 driven from a high box, supported by strong iron stays in front 

 of the banquette, about half-way forward over the backs of 

 the wheelers. The driver held little conversation with the 

 guard, and none whatever with the passengers. He was ill 

 clad and ill protected from the cold at night fortunately for 

 him, his exposure rarely exceeded an hour. In former times 

 the near-side wheeler was ridden by a gaily-uniformed postilion, 

 with high and heavy jackboots and a cocked hat, who managed 

 the team of five horses ; but probably from motives of economy 

 he was afterwards replaced by a more humble and less costly 

 successor. The horse-collars were of great size and weight, 

 and fitted well; the traces were nearly always of rope, but 

 neither the harness nor carriages were so well cleaned and 

 kept up as in England. 



But there were two accessories, one appertaining to each 

 country, that differed entirely : the whip, and the coach-horn 

 (or 'yard of tin,' as it was sometimes familiarly called). 



The English coachman carried in his right hand a work 

 of art in a neat, jaunty, highly-finished whip with a thong 

 skilfully plaited, and he used it with grace, sometimes with an 

 elegant flourish just enough to remind a highly bred-horse that 

 he was not doing his best, or to remove a troublesome fly ; at 

 other times with resolution, to chastise a sluggard who wished 

 his mate to do all the pulling, while he trotted along with a 

 loose collar and traces. 



The French driver carried an elastic stick with a long and 

 taper thong, but he had a marvellous knack of so using his 

 whip on entering a town, as to imitate the detonation of per- 

 cussion caps, and so announce his arrival. The English guard 

 cleared the road of a sleeping waggoner by a blast or octave on 

 his long copper horn, but in so merry and pleasant a way as to 

 cheer all hearts, and many were the children in the towns who 

 turned out to greet the coach. 



In Germany the eil- and schnellwagen performed the duties 

 of keeping up communications on the roads, but the service was 



