The Sport of Our Ancestors 



the foot-board, performing all the offices of the chariot 

 with not a third of its expenses. The English cabriolet, 

 however, is rather on the decline in the fashionable world, 

 and the light and airy tilbury is making its appearance 

 again. 



For country work nearly all these open vehicles have 

 given place to the double-bodied phaeton and the britscka, 

 both of which are much used in travelling post. The former 

 is likewise in vogue with citizens and others who have 

 families, and is now made so light as to be drawn by one 

 horse with four persons in it with ease, for a limited number 

 of miles. Descending still lower in the scale, and only one 

 remove from the donkey-cart, is what is called the pony- 

 chaise, out of which more people have been killed than we 

 should like to enumerate here. These vehicles, by far the 

 most dangerous carriages of the whole family they belong to, 

 are so light that an animal even of little power can do what 

 he pleases with them ; they are also obliged to be made so 

 short in the carriage, that the least thing upsets them, while 

 the persons in them are not out of reach of heels. Should 

 the animal be alarmed and endeavour to run away, the low- 

 ness and lightness of the vehicle nearly destroy all power of 

 resistance ; indeed, if he have much power, a carriage of this 

 description may be compared to a canister tied to a dog's 

 tail.^ 



1 Accidents by these carriages frequently arise from apparently an un- 

 known cause ; it is by no means generally known that horses frequently begin 

 kicking or plunging in consequence of some part of their harness pinching 

 them, but which their drivers are quite unconscious of at the time. Thus 



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