VIRGIL ON DRIVING. 307 



of driving, shall recognise that too great familiarity 

 with professional guards and coachmen need not 

 form a part of the curriculum. It is quite possible 

 to arrive at the dignity of being a perfect whip with- 

 out abating one jot of one's character as a gentleman. 

 Those people who believe in nothing but railways 

 and in no coachman except he wear a livery and 

 receive wages, should not be allowed any cause for 

 sneering at those who, with money to spend and 

 disposition and health to enjoy, delight in tooling four 

 well-bred ones over the macadam. 



The first man to drive four horses, according to 

 Virgil, was Erichthonius, for he remarks : " Primus 

 Erichthonius currus et quatuor ausus jungere equos." 

 — Geor. III. 113. 



Provided that the world continues to exist, not- 

 withstanding the numerous other modes of progression, 

 I am convinced that it will be a very long while yet 

 ere the last coachman will take his seat on the bench 

 of a four-horse coach, or, manipulating his ribbons in a 

 workmanlike style, throws his lash persuasively across 

 the quarters of his near leader, since the love of 

 driving is so strongly implanted in the breast of 

 Englishmen. When this comes to pass, we may 

 then expect to see a New Zealand aboriginal sitting 

 upon Waterloo Bridge in all his war-paint, and view- 

 ing, with undisturbed countenance, the oft-foretold 

 destruction of the City of London, 



X 2 



