314 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



coachmen with regard to ill-treatment of horses, it is 

 that coaches are too heavy ; a couple of elliptic springs 

 taken from a full-sized four-horse coach appear to me 

 to be as heavy as an entire carriage of the lightest 

 class, such as a T cart or Stanhope gig. Yet it is 

 a well-known fact that a coach upon which so many 

 people ride must be strong in proportion to the weight 

 it has to support, and that the stronger it is made, 

 the longer it will last and the safer it will be. Not- 

 withstanding this, there have been many complaints 

 about the weight of coaches ; letters have frequently 

 been written to sporting papers on the subject. A 

 gentleman wrote some time ago to the Field ; his 

 letter appeared about May 6th, 1882, in which he says : 

 " I was a guest on the first trip of the Dorking 

 coach this season." He then asks : " Why all this 

 cumbrous machinery for carrying over our well-made 

 roads a few gentlemen who might be packed in a 

 one-horse waggonette ?" He goes on to say : " It is 

 a coach-maker's hobby. Eighteen months ago I was 

 a guest of a well-known baronet in the North of 

 Wales, during which I had the pleasure of the most 

 glorious and enjoyable rides over the Welsh hills I ever 

 had in my life. The coach was but fifteen hundred- 

 weight, and was a marvel of symmetry and comfort. 

 The lieht horses of the district were able to take it 

 over the hills with the greatest ease, and there was 

 a marvellous elasticity about it entirely unlike the 

 ordinary coaches to which I had been accustomed. 

 Perhaps it should be stated — as I was informed — that 

 the builders, Morgan & Co., a well-known firm in 

 Long Acre, claim a patent for this litde coach. Any- 

 how, the fact remains that coaches should not be 

 the cumbersome things they now are ; and the sooner 



