Driving 1 25 



bitted. Their trainers lack the skill necessary to 

 advance them, or, if they possess it, they find that 

 the horse-using public neither demands perfection 

 nor, as a rule, possesses the ability to handle the 

 thoroughly educated and properly mouthed animal. 



The average charioteer also, be he never so indif- 

 ferent a performer, resents instantly and vigorously 

 any imputations cast upon his skill, or any advice 

 looking to his improvement in such undertakings. 

 It is an odd kink in human nature, but astonish- 

 ingly common, that one must never imply that an- 

 other does not know all about horses — their care, 

 management, and steerage — and while it is quite 

 safe to jeer at the golfer, to deride the yachtsman, 

 to instruct the athlete, or to advise the tyro at any 

 of the favourite sports and pastimes, he who would 

 warn, chide, or demonstrate to the neophyte horse- 

 man is rash indeed, and tempts reprisals which he 

 wots not of. 



Advice, forsooth, to Smith, who always as a boy 

 drove the peripatetic butcher's and grocer's wagons 

 whenever he could " hook school ! " Or to Brown, 



