286 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



on roads good, bad and indifferent, hilly or flat; 

 and the characteristic rattle of their machinery 

 and the hoarse trnmpeting of their cyclorns are 

 becoming familiar even to the rnstics of Devon 

 and Somerset. 



Let it not be supposed, however, that skill in 

 driving is not so necessary now as in the days of 

 the spanking teams of coach-horses. The careful 

 coachman of old saved his horses over the road for 

 the long climbs and rugged places ; he " sprung " 

 them perhaps on the level, and gave them a 

 " toAvelling " as a persnader to greater efforts 

 through snow-drifts, winds or floods; and the 

 driver of a motor-car does many of these things to 

 his machinery, not indeed with the aid of a whip, 

 but through the agency of levers, taps and brakes. 

 You can overdrive and exhaust a motor just as 

 easily as you can a horse, while it Avants feeding 

 just as w^ell. " A just man is merciful to his 

 beast," and a cautious man is careful of his car, 

 not only because if he was not he would perhaps 

 be left with half a ton of inert machinery upon 

 the road, but because he is just as fond of his 

 automobile as many another of his steeds of flesh 

 and blood. 



But to most people Avho have only seen motor- 

 cars, and have neither driven them nor ridden in 

 one, this will not readily be understood ; while 

 the veteran Avho remembers the sights and sounds 

 of the coaching days does not hear the clatter of 

 the new occupants of the road with pleasurable 

 feelings. To him. there is no music in the 



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