198 THE HORSE. 



and limbs of their clients. Some years since, on a 

 journey into Kent, and sitting on the box beside the 

 dragsman, I was surprised to see him turn out of a 

 fine piece of road which had the most moderate, and, 

 in my idea, most insignificant slope, in order to whip 

 his horses over a deep and fresh laid piece of gravel. 

 On my remark, he said, ' hush ; I have upwards of 

 three tons on the coach, and an unevenness of the 

 road, which otherwise would not be felt, might now 

 bring us on our knees.' We were at whips soon 

 after starting, in ascending Westminster Bridge, and 

 at our second stage one of the wheelers swooned in 

 his collar. One of the leaders, in a coach with 

 which I travelled last year, had, the previous week, 

 dropped down dead, heart-broken, in his stage ; and 

 a dragsman, apparently a very careful man, and, I 

 should think, a proprietor, whose coach runs west- 

 ward, assured me, that a certain crack brother of the 

 whip had actually driven a poor mare several miles, 

 after one of her legs and her loins had been broken. 

 To record the road accidents of years past a man 

 must determine to write a folio. It was indeed a 

 fatal accident in December last, from which a worthy 

 gentleman lost his life. It occurred from the horses 

 running away with the coach, and from no fault of 

 the driver. In all probability they were, at least 

 several of them, raw horses, not thoroughly broke to 

 harness. I have formerly written against the em- 

 ploying any restiff horses in the public work, but 

 such is the difficulty of horsing a large coach con- 

 cern, that proprietors have not always time to be 



