342 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES 



a try, wet or fine, and was lucky enough to pick out one of the few 

 bright days we have had for my expedition. 



The old saying, " Nothing succeeds like success," came to mind 

 in studying the various teams of the " Defiance." The proprietor, Car- 

 leton V. Blyth, Esq., is to be congratulated on having so successfully 

 carried out the pluckiest undertaking attempted during the present 

 revival of road coaching. " Nimrod," in the old book, " Road, Turf, 

 and Chase," says " a fast coach has, or ought to have, very nearly a 

 horse for every mile of ground it runs, reckoning one way, or one 

 side of the ground." This old-fashioned advice has been followed 

 in the present instance. 



On Sept. 15, Messrs. Tattersall will sell without reserve 120 

 horses — a horse a mile — the entire stud of Carleton V. Blyth, Esq., 

 nearly all of which have been in regular work in the coach between 

 Oxford, London, and Cambridge during the season (six months). 

 "For particulars," says the characteristic yellow yard, "see catalogue." 

 But I say see i/ie Jtoses. Any one who is looking forward to the 

 coming hunting season, and who is not already suited, or who wants 

 harness horses of rare stamp and quality, should see those of the 

 " Defiance." They have nearly all good shoulders — about the first 

 thing one looks for — and most of them look like hunters. Of course 

 they are very fit, and considering the unusually long season, the 

 heavy state of the roads all the summer, and "OixQ pace they have been 

 required to go, they are wonderfully well and fresh. Naturally some 

 are a little stale on their legs after such trying work, but much jarring 

 and bruising of feet has been avoided by the capital plan of shoeing 

 with leather. 



The first team I saw were those four bays who come into Oxford 

 at 9 p.m., and submit so patiently to the rather demonstrative crowd 

 of admirers who assemble at the "Mitre" by lamplight to seethe 

 " Defiance" arrive. At 9 p.m. one can only perceive they are bays, and 

 that the coach is yellow, and that Fownes has brought them in ; and 

 our old friend, young Cracknell, has apparently an unlimited number 

 of hat-boxes and portmanteaus to dive for in the boot. But at 9 a.m. 

 we see these same bays to advantage. They are a real old-fashioned 

 sort, strong wheelers, with a wear-and-tear look about them I hardly 

 expected \ leaders a trifle lighter, all bright and healthy in their coats, 

 and perfectly turned out in every way. The coach is as good as 

 those of Messrs. Holland & Holland always are. They go off quickly 

 and gently down the old street at Oxford, Cracknell making sweet 

 music on his horn in a way that few others can. As I have said, the 

 morning was, for a wonder, bright and sunny \ and although the 

 meadows round the town were, of course, mostly under water, and no 

 end of hay floating about, our road was high and dry enough, and 

 the country lovely through which we passed to Wheatley, the first 

 change. Here they took on four other bays, lighter than the last, 

 Irish-looking horses I thought, quick and active, and with a useful 



