i6o HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



of both increasing by their own accelerated descent 

 down an abrupt hill. 



" The road was wide enough for three carriages 

 to pass each other ; but the prisoner Butler perceiving 

 that Perdy was keeping ahead of him, pushed his 

 horses on, and waving his hat and cheering, suddenly 

 turned his leaders in front of the leaders of the Holy- 

 head mail, which, in consequence of being jammed 

 in between the bank of the road and the other 

 vehicle, was immediately upset. The consequences 

 were frightful. The deceased was killed on the spot, 

 the witness had a leg and an arm shattered most 

 dreadfully, and a gentleman's servant, named Fenner, 

 was taken up almost lifeless. Thomas Fenner con- 

 firmed the last witness ; he stated that both the 

 prisoners were flogging their horses at a most furious 

 rate down the hill, and he was convinced that the 

 accident might have been avoided with common care, 

 notwithstanding the velocity with which the horses 

 were driven, as there was quite room enough for the 

 Chester mail to have passed the Holyhead. 



" Mr. Baron Gurney summed up the case for the 

 jury in an eloquent and impressive manner. The 

 jury found the prisoners ' Guilty.' 



" The learned judge, in passing sentence, commented 

 on the conduct of the prisoners in terms of strong 

 animadversion. His lordship laid it clown distinctly, 

 as a proposition not to be disputed, that it was unlaw- 

 ful for the driver to put his horses into a gallop, and 

 that he was answerable for all the consequences of an 

 infringement of this law." '"' 



* I believe this law was frequently evaded by having one fa.-^t- 

 trotting wheel-horse, who trotted whilst the other three horses were 

 galloping, the law making it punishable only when all four horses 

 galloped. 



