1 6 8 THR UGH STABLE AND SADDLE-R O OM. 



also suffers ; and lastly, in extreme cases, the wood, 

 being exposed to wet and damp, gets rotten, and 

 the carriage is ruined. It is therefore necessary 

 to allow a due period to elapse between the time a 

 carriage is finished and the time it is brought into use. 



A careless servant will in a very short time 

 knock a carriage about and effect through his 

 rough handling in cleaning more damage in a 

 fortnight than should be caused by years of fair 

 wear. The wheels, being the most difficult portions 

 to clean, are generally the first to suffer. As a rule, 

 the spoke -brush is the weapon which inflicts the 

 most serious wounds ; for as it is worked between 

 the spokes of the wheel, unless care is exercised in 

 its use, the back, striking against the opposite spoke, 

 knocks the paint off it. Who that keeps a carriage . 

 is not familiar with the ' tap, tap, tapping ' of the 

 back of the spoke-brush against the wheels ? Of 

 course, a good servant will not be guilty of this 

 Castanet accompaniment. 



We will suppose that a carriage has just come in 

 dirty. As soon as possible, if daylight permits, it 

 should be cleaned. No mud should ever be allowed 

 to remain on all night if it is possible to remove it ; 

 the lime, etc., off the roads tend, if left, to destroy 

 the varnish. All mud, therefore, should be sluiced 

 off with water, and these sluicings should be re- 



