The Sport of Our Ancestors 



money could have produced more than an average of eleven 

 miles an hour, and it is certain that the proprietors knew 

 their business. * Nimrod ' says that the average life of a horse 

 in a fast road coach was four years, exactly the same period 

 that was reckoned to be the average life of the London 

 omnibus horse. 



Every line of *Nimrod's ' paper on ' The Road * is excellent 

 reading. With eloquence based on knowledge he treats of 

 an art which is not only fascinating in itself, but particularly 

 agreeable to the genius of the English people. No other 

 nation has ever been able to couple horses together, harness 

 them to a carriage, and drive them when harnessed with 

 the same ease, neatness, and precision as was displayed by 

 our own artists in the twenties and the thirties. The exercise 

 of their art was interrupted by the steam-engine, but it 

 was revived for amateurs under the auspices of the old 

 survivors of the Road. Yet it is strange that, in a country 

 which has produced the best coachmen the world has ever 

 seen, the vast majority of amateurs never really knew how to 

 drive, though they were continually driving, and more often 

 than not got to the end of the journey without an accident. 

 Before the invention of motor-cars, when every one who 

 could affordlit kept his or her own carriage and drove his 

 or her own horses, how many people knew enough to sit 

 straight on the box seat and to hold the whip and reins 

 properly ? No one can drive in good style by the light of 

 nature. He must have been taught the technique by a 

 real coachman. The difference between those who have 

 128 



