08 



OBSERVATIONS OX DRIVING. 



" Sunt quos curriculo." 



On nearly every art or science practised by man there 

 have been instructions, treatises, opinions, criticisms, 

 and I know not "what, repeatedly published, from the 

 highly intellectual study of astronomy to the more 

 manual art of making a horse-shoe. Nothing scarcely 

 has been thought too insignificant to fix the attention 

 and call forth tlie written opinions of those conversant 

 with their subject. Horsemanship has produced 

 writers on that art of a very early date, varying their 

 instructions and terms used according to the age in 

 wdiich they lived and wrote ; but I am not aware that 

 any really good instructions in the art of driving have 

 yet appeared. Nimrod, it is true, has given us his 

 illustrations of the Road in the pages of Maga, and 

 in a most masterly and scientific way has he handled 

 his subject : on what subject, it may be asked, has 

 he ever failed to do so ? But his observations relate 

 only to coaching, of the perfection of which those who 

 live in the next century will, I fear, have about as 

 vague an idea as we have as yet of the merits of the 

 new aerial flying smoke-jack. AVhy driving should 

 have been hitherto considered less worthy of attention 

 as a subject to be written on than horsemanship I 

 cannot imagine. That the former should be done well, 

 if done at all, I consider of the much greater import- 

 ance. If a man rides, he rides alone, since the days of 



