The Sport of Our Jincestors 



in ascending a hill at ever so quick a rate, when every 

 horse is at work. This shows the necessity of putting 

 horses well together, and driving them with a steady hand. 



The worst of accidents — and one which, with the present 

 structure of coaches, can never be entirely provided against — 

 arises from broken axletrees, from which cause, since these 

 articles first appeared, several lives have been lost, and 

 more limbs fractured. There is certainly something start- 

 ling in the reflection, that whenever we travel by a coach 

 we are liable to this occurrence, which must happen if the 

 weight above be too great for the sustaining power below ; 

 and for this reason the mails are safer than stage-coaches, 

 as not loading so heavily. Everything that can be done to 

 prevent the snapping of the axletree has now been adopted, 

 we think, by our coach-builders. In case it does break, 

 what is called the idle wheel, in addition to the active wheel, 

 is the only security against an upset ; but as this some- 

 what adds to the weight of a coach, the adoption of 

 it has been abandoned. Accidents, then, are always to 

 be apprehended by travellers from this cause ; the loss of 

 wheels is another ; and until an act of parliament enforces 

 the use of the patent box, or the screw-nut, so as to trust 

 no longer to the common linchpin, it will remain a third. ^ 



^ The only linchpin that can be relied on is the wooden one, which, to- 

 gether with the screw-nut, is used in the French diligences. It is made of 

 heart of oak ; and being once driven through the eye of the arm, cannot be 

 drawn out again, without cutting off the bottom of it, as it swells to a size 

 which prevents its returning the way it went in. There is no dependence on 

 iron linchpins. 



The model of a carriage has lately been exhibited, built on a plan by which 



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