78 VENTRE A TERRE. 



and many parts of it at fifteen miles an hour. This 

 is the furious driving complained of. If the coach- 

 proprietor fails in fulfilling his contract with the 

 public, he is considered as having imposed upon them, 

 and here is a source of complaint. People like the 

 shortness of time occupied in travelling, are anxious 

 to get to their journey's end, but want this to be done 

 without inconvenience or any risk. The ladies would 

 wish to have time to arrange their curls every time 

 the coach changes horses ; the gentlemen to sip their 

 Sherry or Claret after dinner, and then not to be 

 hurried in arranging their curls or cravats, and all 

 this to be taken out of the ten hours independent of 

 no galloping allowed. Talking of galloping, this is 

 a thing little understood among the uninitiated : 

 people are apt to imagine, because all four horses are 

 galloping, that the coach must be going at a dangerous 

 and quite unlawful rate. Such persons, I suspect, 

 have never ridden umpire to a trotting-match ; if they 

 had, they would have found that even a moderate 

 trotter would keep their horse to a fair hunting 

 gallop ; and it by no means follows, because horses 

 are galloping, that they are going faster than they 

 would were they all fast in their trot. But it is 

 difficult to get four horses to trot fast together; 

 whereas put them in a gallop, they can all be made 

 to do their equal portion of work, though they pro- 

 bably do not exceed eleven or twelve miles an hour. 



I am, in a limited sense of the word, a great advo- 

 cate for a little galloping where a fast pace is required. 

 I know that, so far from its distressing horses, it 

 greatly relieves them if judiciously done and over 

 proper ground. It would not have done in former 

 days when seven miles an hour was held to be fast, 



