THE HORSE. 215 



you will be sure to become drowsy. Keep yourself 

 sober. Keep a tight hand on your horses, your eye 

 well forward. Get out of the way of carts and wag- 

 gons in time. Keep the middle of the road. Be sure 

 to keep time. Chains and springs on the bars are 

 good things for night work, as they prevent the 

 leaders traces from coming off." Were these Nim- 

 rodian rules framed and glazed, and hung up at our 

 inns, they would afford a good memento, non mori, sed 

 vivere. 



At page 159, u. s. there are a number of excellent 

 and truly practical observations on coachhorses and 

 coach work, which I regret the want of room to ex- 

 tract, but to which I urgently recommend a refer- 

 ence. An account is given of two horses that have 

 stood the work of the Southampton Telegraph more 

 than ten years ; and of a grey gelding, the property 

 of my namesake of Shrewsbury, which has earned 

 £1,440 in the Holyhead mail : surely this horse de- 

 served, and I hope had, in the ultimate, his otium cum 

 dignitate, instead of the too usual reward ! A rela- 

 tive of mine, an old breeder, sold a five years old 

 blind mare, by Young Traveller, to the old Colchester 

 coach : I sat behind her as a wheeler, when she had 

 run twelve years in that situation, and was then well 

 upon her legs, and in remarkable good case. It was 

 in the day of Abram Stragler. I hail the following 

 remarks from Nimrod : 



. " I like to see flesh on a coachhorse, if it be good 

 flesh. It is quite a mistaken notion that fat horses 

 cannot go fast in harness ; they are more powerful in 

 draught than thin horses ; and having nothing but 



