^Nimrod ' 



so inhuman as to drive these poor animals another stage 

 at this unmerciful rate ? ' ' Change horses, sir ! ' says the 

 proprietor ; ' why, we changed them whilst you were putting 

 on your spectacles, and looking at your watch. Only one 

 minute allowed for it at Hounslow, and it is often done in 

 fifty seconds by those nimble-fingered horse-keepers.' ' You 

 astonish me ! — but really I do not like to go so fast.' ' Oh, 

 sir ! we always spring them over these six miles. It is what 

 we call the hospital ground.' This alarming phrase is pre- 

 sently interpreted : it intimates that horses whose ' backs 

 are getting down instead of up in their work ' — some * that 

 won't hold an ounce down hill, or draw an ounce up ' — 

 others ' that kick over the pole one day, and over the bars 

 the next ' — in short, all the reprobates, styled in the road 

 slang ho-kickerSy are sent to work these six miles, because 

 here they have nothing to do but to gallop — not a pebble 

 as big as a nutmeg on the road ; and so even, that it would 

 not disturb the equilibrium of a spirit-level. 



The coach, however, goes faster and faster over the 

 hospital ground y as the bo-kickers feel their legs, and the 

 collars get warm to their shoulders ; and having ten out- 

 sides, the luggage of the said ten, and a few extra packages 

 besides on the roof, she rolls rather more than is pleasant, 

 although the centre of gravity is pretty well kept down by 

 four not slender insides, two well-laden boots, and three 

 huge trunks in the slide. The gentleman of the last century, 

 however, becomes alarmed — is sure the horses are running 

 away with the coach — declares he perceives by the shadow 



187 



