90 THE COACHING AGE. 



as such are exactly settled, and admit of no dispute 

 among men of science ; and hence he directed his 

 attention to the height of the wheels of a coach, a.nd 

 whether the load should be principally over the 

 fore or hind wheels. It was considered that large 

 wheels diminished the labour of the horses in draught, 

 so that it would be much more advantageous to make 

 the four wheels of a coach nearly of the same size, 

 especially looking to the fact that, according to the 

 usual mode of loading coaches, the heaviest weight was 

 on the small fore-wheels, pressing them . deeper into 

 the ground, and thereby very much increasing the 

 labour of the horses. As the running of a coach 

 well or otherwise greatly depends on the way in 

 which the hind-wheels follow the fore ones, and as 

 this depends in some degree upon the length of 

 the perch, it was said that the perch should be made 

 as short as it could with safety, regard being had 

 to the greater tendency of a coach to upset with 

 a short perch than with a long one. While on the 

 subject of wheels, the breadth of the tires naturally 

 came under notice as a very important feature. The 

 tires of the mails were then one inch and three 

 quarters in breadth, while some of the heavy slow 

 coaches had tires two inches and a quarter broad, 

 but the fast coaches one inch and a half. 



The desirability of using springs was a point that 



