204 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



best hansoms, we will probably find it appointed as 

 follows. To begin with the horse : between the 

 shafts, you will observe, is a thoroughbred, drafted 

 from some racing stable, not for any vice, but because 

 he has not the requisite turn of speed ; he has been 

 sent up to Tattersall's or Aldridge's, and has been 

 purchased by some cab proprietor. The horse is a 

 nice-looking beast, with a neat-looking head and neck, 

 good shoulders, and excellent limbs, and you probably 

 remark that he is too good for a cab. He has on 

 him a nice, light, well-made harness, the brass-work 

 of which Mr. Cabby is continually polishing ; the 

 cabman himself is a smart-looking fellow, and appa- 

 rently takes great pride in his horse and cab. The 

 cab is built by Forder, the well-known coach-builder, 

 of Upper St. Martin's Lane ; the wheels have noise- 

 less indiarubber tires, and in place of the old doors 

 opening in the centre and falling back on either 

 side, there is one large door like the apron of a 

 carriage stretched out on a solid frame, which falls 

 against the dash, leaving room for the fare to get 

 in or out. As you enter the cab, the cabby, appa- 

 rently conscious that you are wearing a good hat, 

 lifts his reins out of the brass guide through which 

 they pass, in order to avoid knocking it off. As you 

 seat yourself inside the cab, you observe the india- 

 rubber mat at your feet, the two little looking-glasses, 

 the place for your cigar-ash, and the box of lucifer- 

 matches ; in addition to these luxuries there is some- 

 times a pneumatic or electric bell. In one cab in 

 which I rode, there was actually an apparatus for 

 signalling to the driver to stop, turn to the right 

 or the left, and so on ; in addition to this there is 

 a little silk blind to each side window (the use of 

 which I have never been able to understand) ; to this 



