HOLLAND AND HOLLAND. 317 



These were the questions and answers which passed 

 between myself and Mr. Kesterton ; and though I 

 admit that a coach weighing twenty-two hundred- 

 weight, loaded with passengers, Is too heavy for any 

 coach-horses except the very strongest of their kind, 

 yet no one can complain when a coach does not 

 exceed eighteen hundredweight. Yet where there is 

 smoke there must be hre, and there is undoubtedly 

 some truth in the complaints that have been made 

 as to coaches being too heavy, but to do away with 

 the perch, as one of these correspondents suggests, 

 would alter the character of the whole carriage. Mr. 

 Kesterton in writing to me remarks, that •'' a coach 

 without a perch Is no coach at all, only a four-wheel 

 carriage. A perch prevents the pole from being un- 

 steady, prevents it chucking, as in a coach with a 

 perch the pole is under the springs, and not above 

 them. The perch gives greater strength and assists 

 the draught, as it connects the front and hind carriage ; 

 it would, therefore, never, do to dispense with It, as 

 suggested by the Field correspondent." 



Speaking of the coaches in the Lake districts, 

 whatever they may be as regards build, I can bear 

 testimony to their being remarkably well driven. I 

 spent some time in the Lake districts a couple of years 

 ago, and was surprised at the skilful, and I may 

 almost say reckless way in which they were driven. 

 It Is not always the best appointed coach which is 

 best driven ; there are many coaches throughout Eng- 

 land that are badly appointed, badly horsed, yet well 

 driven, coaches upon which one might hesitate to be 

 seen ; and yet there is no doubt that when a gentlenian 

 takes to driving, in many cases his superior intelligence 

 is the means of making a better coachman of him than 



