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reins; but I will venture to add that the man is yet unborn who could drive some coaches that I could name without the use of these necessary articles. In the first place, there are many horses-sometimes whole teams -that will not face anything but the cheek ; and where is the arm that could bear the weight of four horses leaning upon it for an hour or more together, perhaps at full gallop? How much soever humanity toward horses may be enjoined, regard for our own species must prevail, and no horse in a coach or a post chaise is safe without a bearing rein ; and for this reason he is in constant danger, from having his head at liberty, of losing his bridle by rubbing his head against the pole or against the other horse, and then an accident is almost sure to happen, as was the case with the York Highflyer coach last year, by which a woman lost her life. To this must be added the certainty of his being the more likely to fall, which I have, I think, clearly proved in a former letter. I know that here and there is to be found an advocate for no bearing rein-Mr. Ward, for instance, a good coachman of the old school, but slow as to pace-and I had a pretty good taste of it last winter, when staying with Sir Bellingham Graham, in Shropshire. He took it into his head to drive a pair of wheelers without bearing reins, and neither the baronet nor myself can soon forget the strain on the muscles of our arms when driving those
