362 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



of the day ; at the same time he has it in his power to 

 display taste and judgment in the construction. His 

 object should be to combine elegance with strength, 

 and that one part of the vehicle shall be so in character 

 with another, that the carriage shall not want anything 

 that it ought to have, and not have anything that it 

 could do without. He, also, has to be careful not to 

 make any part heavier than absolutely necessary, and 

 must be particular to make it easy of draught, by 

 having the best finished axles set in such an exact 

 manner, that the wheels may run perfectly free, follow- 

 ing one another in the same track. 



There is no earthly reason why a gentleman of 

 education and intelligence, who is fond of driving, 

 and passes much of his time on the box, or the 

 bench, as it used to be called, should not make a 

 study of carriage-building, just in the same way as 

 the owner of a yacht acquires a knowledge of yacht- 

 building. I even knew an Admiral, who, when in 

 command of the Channel Squadron, expressed a 

 very strong wish to be thoroughly acquainted with 

 iron ship-building and marine engineering ; and it 

 appears to me that when one passes so much of 

 one's time making use of a particular thing, or 

 having anything under one's entire charge, it is only 

 natural and creditable that one should manifest some 

 anxiety to become acquainted with its construction. 

 In the event of any accident happening on the road 

 or a carriage being out of repair, an owner would 

 benefit considerably if he possessed some knowledge 

 of coach-building ; besides which, a coach-builder's 

 account is, to any one not initiated into the mysteries 

 of coach-building, as difficult to understand as a 

 house-builder's account ; in both cases it appears as 



