102 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



accommodate hunters. As reoards the old coaching: 

 stables, it is difficult to say of what the old drains were 

 constructed, since in those days there was no iron 

 employed in stable drainage, neither were there any 

 glazed drain-pipes, which, owing to the collar, can 

 almost be hermetically jointed, besides having bends 

 and junctions to suit various situations. As for the 

 pavement of these old stables, it is invariably rough 

 pitching, either of pebbles, flint, or Purbeck stone, 

 which is so constructed as to arrest surface drain- 

 age, rather than facilitate it. As to the mangers, 

 they were all of wood with old over-head hay-racks 

 and worm-eaten manger-troughs, which, once infected 

 with disease, conveyed it to every horse who fed from 

 the same manger. In place of all this we have now a 

 perfect system of drainage, hard Staffordshire vitrified 

 pavement upon which horses cannot slip, and which is 

 so made that it will not retain water on its surface. 

 We have iron manger-troughs, iron hay-racks, large 

 ventilating windows, and, what is more essential than 

 everything else, w^idth between each stall division, 

 plenty of room behind the horses, and doors of a 

 proper width, through which horses can pass without 

 injury. And then the old yards were vilely paved, 

 and the buildings frequently have neither a claim to 

 architectural pretensions, nor even common sense to 

 plead as an excuse for their erection. Speaking 

 of stables, as I have mentioned elsewhere, the largest 

 stables for coach and post-horses in the neighbourhood 

 of London, were at Hounslow and Barnet. 



It has been remarked that if all the people who 

 now travel by rail were to travel by road, what are 

 now almost unfrequented portions of a highway, would 



