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together, and put ourselves together properly turned-out vehicles, 

 and have them driven properly both by ourselves and by our 

 servants, for although we have always been horsemen, we certainly 

 are still a long way from being coachmen. 



I don't want to offend any of my countrymen by drawing com- 

 parisons, but I would say that in my opinion the Irishmen to take 

 pattern from in driving are such as Messrs. James Talbot Power and 

 his brother Thomas, John Thompson, James O'Reilly, Nathaniel 

 Morton, and John Hickey. Undoubtedly we have many other good 

 whips, but these are the men who caught my eye in the arena at Ball's 

 Bridge and elsewhere. 



I shall now cease making comparisons and finding fault, and by way 

 of atonement for what I have said, shall give a tip to those who at 

 times have to make long journeys by road, and it is particularly useful 

 to my old friends the jarveys, who, with our gentlemen and servant 

 coachmen, I have been abusing so hard. 



Put a quart or less of oaten meal into a tin can, and pour in as much 

 boiling water as the meal will soak up, covering over with a tight- 

 fitting lid. Place the tin in a convenient corner of the trap, wrapped in 

 a rug or cloth. When the time comes, pull up at a house (or side of 

 any stream if a bucket be carried) and make your horses a nice drink 

 of meal and water. After the soaking the meal will come out in a 

 thick gruel, and, being still hot, will take the chill off the water and 

 afford a much more nourishiog drink than freshly-mixed meal; besides, 

 the latter is very liable to give gripes. This is a straight tip, and 

 useful alike to drivers of public and private traps. 



Another good plan is : If a horse or horses run away and become 

 uncontrollable, the best thing to be done is for someone to get behind 

 the driver and encircle his body across the chest with his arms, and 

 in this position pull with all his might ; adding to the exertion all 

 his iveight by taking somewhere a good purchase with his feet, but he 

 must take care not to interfere with the reins, and the heavier he is 

 the better. 



As with sailing a boat so it is with driving horses. As long as 

 everything goes smoothly, to handle properly the one and the other 

 is comparatively an easy job. It is not, however, until a man is caught 

 in a hobble with either the tiller or tapes and has to get himself out 

 of it that he can show whether or not he has real skill and nerve. 

 To drive properly a well trained pair or team of horses along a road, 

 around a show-yard, or even in crowded streets, no doubt requires 

 a certain amount of bkill, but I don't think it requires a great deal 

 of nerve. Give me, however, the fellow like John Bates, who drove 

 the Waterford and Dungarvan coach some twenty-five to thirty years 

 ago. He seldom had what could be called a handy team, while some 

 of the changes along his daily route were as unruly as were ever given 

 into the hands of man to drive a coach with. Often I saw Bates 

 during that dreary thirty miles getting together these pull-devil-pull- 



