136 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



running leader in it suddenly dropped down dead. 

 He was dragged to the side of the road by the guard 

 and coachman, who then got his clothes off (meaning 

 his harness), and the mail continued its journey with 

 three horses only. For the sake of the horses we 

 ought to be glad that coaching is over. 



In the days of coaching there was no Society for 

 the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and when we 

 consider the vast number of horses that were made 

 use of, and the imperative necessity for keeping time 

 and pushing forward at all risk and at every hazard, 

 we may be certain that consideration for the horse did 

 not occupy a large space in the minds of the coachmen 

 or horse-keepers. Yet in those days, of course, there 

 were certain limits or bounds beyond which it was not 

 practicable to work a horse ; but when it could be done 

 without pecuniary loss or accident then the horse was 

 used, althouQ^h it mio^ht be hasteninfj the end of an old 

 and once valued servant, who, had he been nursed 

 and carefully treated for a few weeks, might have been 

 restored almost to his pristine vigour. 



When horses are used by private individuals, or 

 when a small tradesman has a horse in his employ, 

 frequently the animal is regarded by its owner, or by 

 him to whom it is confided, with a feeling akin to 

 affection ; but when the horse merely forms one of a 

 larofe number enofaged in some vast commercial 

 enterprise, the identity of the animal is lost amidst 

 so vast a throng of equine companions ; and sickness 

 attacking or injury occurring to any one single horse 

 is regarded as a matter only entailing loss of money, 

 and the poor animal is draughted, doctored, or put out 

 of the way, without awakening compassion or occa- 

 sioning sorrow to anyone. As to no one, in such cases, 



