312 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



Strength, as a long ride on an indifferent hack, and 

 even on a good one, must exhaust some of the 

 strength and energy with which one started. 



I think a great deal of rubbish has been written 

 about the decline of coaching, yet I am of opinion 

 that the revival of coaches on the road during the 

 summer months is a very sensible way of providing 

 people with amusement, and enabling them to take 

 pleasant drives through a picturesque country; and there 

 is no objection whatever to gentlemen of rank and 

 birth putting these coaches on the road and maintain- 

 ing them in good style, occasionally driving them- 

 selves ; but I do not think it is wise to make a daily 

 practice of driving a public coach. The result of such 

 a practice would not, I feel certain, improve a man's 

 mind ; at the same time, there is nothing degrading 

 in such a practice. As for driving one's own private 

 coach, it is as innocent a pastime as yachting ; the 

 sport, if it can be so called, is of the most inoffensive 

 description — far more so than racing, which frequently 

 brings one into contact with persons of questionable 

 character. Some persons, with far-strained ideas of 

 what is cruel, denominate hunting and shooting as 

 cruelty to animals ; but those who so regard those 

 two sports, one of which is called the sport of kings, 

 can surely have no such charge to make against 

 coaching ; consequently, gentlemen who drive four 

 horses have the satisfaction of knowing that in the 

 breast of no one whom they pass on the road do they 

 raise a storm of indignant protest ; besides which, 

 when driving, the same as when yachting, they give 

 pleasure to others besides themselves. As regards 

 hunting being cruel, the following reply was made to 

 this accusation : 



