1-1-6 TflE COACH-HORSE. 



at the end of the stage, although they would have 

 been more than equal to it at the beginning of it. 

 In fact, many coach-horses are very good for eight 

 miles, but very bad for ten, so nicely are their 

 powers measured in harness. Above all things, we 

 recommend srood le^s and feet in workins^ horses, 

 if they are to be had ; and an extra price is well 

 laid out in procuring them. Whether they are 

 strong in their harness, in very fast work, cannot 

 be discovered until they are tried ; but well bred 

 ones, having substance, are most likely to prove so. 

 Dr. Johnson, in his Rasselas, makes the Artist 

 of the Happy Valley tell the prince, he had long 

 been of opinion that, instead of the tardy convey- 

 ances of ships and chariots, man might use the 

 swifter migration of wings. There appears some- 

 thing prophetic here, when we read of the contem- 

 plated transmission, by all-powerful steam, of a man's 

 person from London to Liverpool in two hours, which 

 would be at a rate that the very " wings of the 

 winds"" never yet equalled. But surely our coaches 

 travel sufficiently fast, and we should be sorry to 

 see their speed increased beyond what it now is, in 

 consideration for the sufferings of the horses em- 

 ployed in them. Were they not always running 

 home (for each end of the stage is their home,) 

 coach-horses would not perform their tasks so well 

 as they now perform them ; and it is owing to that 

 circumstance that the accidents in fast coaches are 

 not so numerous as might be expected, night work, 

 and many other things being taken into account. 

 Coach-horses are subject to many accidents, 



