CHAPTER III.

COACHING.

Ax, what a charm that word has to the man who is really an enthusiast ! It requires a knowledge of the highest branches of the art of horsemanship and equipage to insure a satisfactory result. It is a sport that has come down to us from the days of the old English stage and mail coaches, before the introduction of the railway.

In those days, a number of amateurs, whose names are familiar to all readers of coaching history, were in the habit of driving some of the regular coaches whenever the opportunity offered, and educated as they were under the very best professional whips of the then time, they acquired a practical appreciation of the points necessary to a master of the art.

When we consider to-day the speed at which some of the fast mails were run, we must realize that the men who drove them thoroughly understood their business. The Edinburgh mail, for instance, ran four hundred miles in forty hours, including stoppages. At first

B

k