^'Nimrod' 



The taste for the whip has undoubtedly dedined ; and 

 at one time, perhaps, it occupied more attention among the 

 higher classes of society than we ever wish to see it do again. 

 Yet, taken in moderation, we can perceive no reason to 

 condemn this branch of sport more than others. If so great 

 a personage as Sophocles could think it fitting to display 

 his science in public, in the trifling game of ball, why may 

 not an English gentleman exercise his skill on a coach-box ? 

 If the Athenians, the most polished nation of all antiquity, 

 deemed it an honour to be considered skilful charioteers, 

 why should Englishmen consider it a disgrace ? To be 

 serious — our amateur or gentlemen-coachmen have done 

 much good : the road would never have been what it now 

 is, but for the encouragement they gave, by their notice and 

 support, to all persons connected with it. Would the Holy- 

 head road have been what it is, had there been no such 

 persons as the Hon. Thomas Kenyon, Sir Henry Parnell, 

 and Mr. Maddox ? Would the Oxford coachmen have set 

 so good an example as they have done to their brethren of 

 * the bench,' had there been no such men on their road as 

 Sir Henry Peyton, Lord Clonmell, the late Sir Thomas 

 Mostyn, that Nestor of coachmen, Mr. Annesley, and the 



a coach-horse is frequently set kicking by merely a twist in his trace. Many 

 accidents, however, arise from using horses not properly broken to harness, 

 as well as from the inexperience of drivers. We have all heard of the young 

 Oxonian, who prevailed on his uncle to accompany him in his gig to Oxford. 

 In passing through Kensington, the old gentleman observed he had paid his 

 nephew a great compliment, for that was only the fifth time he had ever been 

 in a gig in his life. The nephew replied that his horse beat him hollow, for 

 he had never been in one at all before that day ! 



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