HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF A MILE. 81 



he pleases from the result. I was desired to take her 

 half a mile up the road, to turn, and, as well as 

 the short distance would permit, to get her up to 

 her top speed in her trot ; then to get her into 

 a gallop (which I did with difficulty), to her best 

 in that pace ; and then to strike her three or four 

 times with the whip. I did so ; and from her gallop, 

 as quickly as she could, she actually did change to 

 her trot, and so far as I could judge she went faster 

 than in her gallop : she ought to have been a pretty 

 good judge of her own powers at that time, for I 

 believe she was eighteen years old, at least so I 

 understood. 



Now, though I plead guilty to being an advocate 

 for a little galloping in harness, I do not mean that sort 

 of scrambling harum-scarum driving I have sometimes 

 seen, where, like the general representations of the 

 steeds of the Sun, each horse appears to go his own 

 way ; and, as if ten miles were not long enough, they 

 are made thirteen, the track of the wheels on the 

 road leaving a very correct drawing of the worm 

 of a corkscrew. Such a driver should never be given 

 but one description of carriage, and that is a wheel- 

 barrow. 



We certainly hear of accidents occurring fre- 

 quently enough: God knows it appears quite mira- 

 culous to me that they do not occur much more 

 frequently than they do, when I see the number of 

 persons undertaking to drive, who, take their horse 

 or horses from the carriage they draw, could positively 

 no more put them into it again properly than a dog- 

 ribbed Indian could put together a Chinese puzzle. To 

 show that I by no means exaggerate the probability 

 of this case, I will mention an instance or two corro- 



VOL. I. G 



