174 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



times the stock had Listed for years, desj^ite the 

 long stages and harder 2)nlling ; hnt in this jieriod 

 of good roads and short stages, when, all things 

 heing equal, a team slioukl liave last(Ml longer, 

 the great coach-proprietors found it necessary to 

 renew their stock every three years. Chaplin's 

 method of doing this was to re2)lace one-third 

 of his horses every year. 



It is not to he sujiposed that the horses thus 

 disposed of Avere ahvays hroken down or Avorn 

 out hy tlieir three years of strenuous exertion 

 in the fast coaches. They had only lost those 

 agile qualities necessary for that use, and, finding 

 purchasers among farmers and country tradesmen 

 Avho had no occasion to galloj) at eleven miles 

 an hour, lived very comfortahly, grew sleek and 

 fat, and must often, from roadside paddocks, have 

 l)eheld their successors slaving aAvay in the fast 

 coaches ; finding much satisfaction in their OAvn 

 altered circumstances. Coachmen at this time 

 usually drove hetween thirty and forty miles out, 

 and then took the up coach hack, perhaps more 

 than half a dav later. With such an arrano^ement 

 the horses had the same driver, and it Avas 

 generally found that they Avorked much hetter 

 in siicli cases. The coachman's responsijjility for 

 tlieir condition Avas also undivided, and the 2)ro- 

 prietor Avas easily ahle to weed out from his 

 coachmen those Avho lingered at the changes and 

 made up the lost time on the road, to the distress 

 of their teams. It Avas Chaj^lin A\ho made it 

 knoAvn, hy all the vigorous language at his 



