368 HI G HIV AYS AND HORSES. 



them daily, in a tandem-cart, to the races ; but on the 

 very first day, just as we were approaching Chichester 

 with the horses trotting well up to their bits, suddenly the 

 axle of my cart broke ; we were not capsized, as would 

 have been the case with a coach, but sank down grace- 

 fully all of a heap on the road, whilst the two wheels 

 flew upward, breaking away the patent leather wings, 

 but with no further ill effect. I had the cart conveyed 

 on a trolley into Chichester, where a coach-builder 

 fitted me a new axle ; but had this not occurred on 

 a level road the consequences might have been serious. 



But to return to coach-building. In coach-building 

 there is a combination of crafts, such as are rarely 

 united in any other trade, except it be ship-building ; 

 for a ship-builder not only builds the vessel, but 

 frequently finishes it throughout, even to furnishing 

 it and supplying the most insignificant article of 

 upholstery. 



The technical names of those trades which are 

 comprised in the different branches of coach-building 

 are body-makers, carriage-makers, wheelers, spring- 

 makers, axle-makers, smiths, trimmers, etc. ; painting is 

 an important part of the business, and those professing 

 it are divided into body, carriage, and heraldry or 

 ornamental painters ; these workmen have each their 

 own department in the construction of a coach. 



The timber employed in coach-building comprises 

 ash, beech, elm, oak, mahogany, cedar, deal, pine, 

 larch-wood, and birch ; but the timber most employed 

 is English-grown ash ; the hedge-row ash growing in 

 open spots is of slower growth, but is much firmer, 

 stronger, and tougher, than that grown in the coppice, 

 and is, therefore, preferred to it for making the heavy 

 framework of a carriage. Ash is rather a tough and 



