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82   DRIVING FOR PLEASURE.

in Annals of the Road, gives another method, which, while not quite as finished in appearance, is most practical and workmanlike ; we will quote it for the convenience of our readers. " When all four horses are to be restrained at once, almost all coachmen draw all the reins through their fingers at the same moment. This is not the way' to do it, for here your horses' mouths are lost. The coachman should change his hands thus : He should open the fingers of his right hand and put the reins into them, about two inches in front of his left hand, and then catch them again with his left by passing it beyond his right. By this plan his horses' mouths, as I have said before, are not lost, which they would otherwise be. I am indebted to Jack Peer for this wrinkle, which I briefly noted in my last."

The team being finally pulled up, the coachman shifts his reins from his left to his right hand, taking them short enough to allow of their reaching comfortably to the handle of the footboard, not so slack that they will fret the wheelers, and throws the ends of his reins over his right arm. He now puts his left foot backward to the step on the boot, grasping meanwhile the box rail with his left hand, then lowers himself until his right foot is placed on the roller bolt, at the same time grasping the handle on the footboard with his right hand : then placing his left foot on the


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