The Sport of Our <*Ancestors 



coachman say, such a horse is * a good night horse, but an 

 indifferent one by day/ Some cannot bear a hot sun on 

 their backs ; and those whose wind is not so good as it 

 should be, run with much greater ease by night. 



It is, indeed, gratifying to contemplate the change that 

 has lately taken place in the whole system of the road ; and 

 it is a most humane one. The old-fashioned coachman to 

 a heavy coach — and they were all heavy down to very recent 

 times — bore some analogy with the prize-fighter, for he 

 stood highest who could hit hardest. He was generally a 

 man of large frame, made larger by indulgence, and of great 

 bodily power — which was useful to him. To the button- 

 hole of his coat were appended several whipcord points, 

 which he was sure to have occasion for on the road, for his 

 horses were whipped till whipping was as necessary to them 

 as their harness. In fair play to him, however, he was not 

 solely answerable for this : the spirit of his cattle was broken 

 by the task they were called to perform — for in those days 

 twenty-mile stages were in fashion ; — and what was the 

 consequence ? Why, the four-horse whip and the Notting- 

 ham whipcord were of no avail over the latter part of the 

 ground, and something like a cat-o '-nine-tails was produced 

 out of the boot, which was jocularly called ' the apprentice ' ; 

 and a shrewd apprentice it was to the art of torturing, which 

 was inflicted on the wheelers without stint or measure, but 

 without which the coach might have been often left on the 

 road. One circumstance alone saved these horses from 

 destruction ; this was the frequency of alehouses on the 



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