Coach driver

“ And so, instead of the handsome stylish coach, that a gentleman might ride on without shame, with its dashing four-in-hand, we have got this dirty, shabby, yellow thing, with its unicorn team of skin and bone, a driver that old Jack Simons, the coachman, would not have had for a stable-helper, and an urchin for guard, who would be a disgrace to a dung-cart! ”

“ It should be added, in truth, that accidents on stage-coaches were seldom with fatal results. Stage-coach travel was more disagreeable than deadly. A stage-coach driver who had driven three hundred days a year for thirty-five years, could boast that there had never been a serious accident while he was driving, and scarcely any injury had been received by any passenger. ”

“ This is no matter of relief or self-congratulation to the driver, for his immoveable philosophy is perfectly undisturbed by anything that happens in the coach. Of all things in the world, the coach would seem to be the very last upon his mind. ”

“ If your Coachman drives leisurely, you will escape many Dangers, and your Carriage last much longer;—by such gentle use (excepting as to the Wheels) it is worn almost as little as if it remained in the Coach-house.
In Crowded Streets, never permit any person to ride on the Coach Box:—Conversation diverts the attention of the Driver from his Business, and accidents frequently ensue. ”

“ This “points the leaders,” who accordingly make the required turn, while at the same time the right hand bears lightly on the wheelers’ rein of the opposite side, to prevent them making the turn too sharply for safety to the coach behind them. As soon as the turn is made—and all this applies equally to the passing of other vehicles or obstacles on the road—the driver’s left thumb releases the loop, which runs out of itself, and the team returns to the straight formation. ”

“ The coach company now consisted of nine passengers inside, one on the top, (which, from its convex form, is a very precarious situation,) and three on the box, besides the coachman, who sat on the knees of the unfortunate middle man,—an uneasy burden, considering the intense heat of the weather.
It matters little to the American driver where he sits; he is indeed, in all respects, a far different personage from his great-coated prototype in England. He is in general extremely dexterous in the art of driving, though his costume is of a most grotesque description. ”

“ The reason given why drag-coaches are made with the front wheel so far back is, that it was necessary in order to bring the horses close to their work, to use a phrase that has been much misapplied, and also to bring them under the driver’s hands, who prefers the reins short, but it would be quite possible to build a coach in which the driver might be over the horses, and yet have the advantage of higher front wheels, and properly placed for carrying the load. ”

“ Nothing tends more to make horses jib than holding on to their heads at the moment of starting. |Wheelers start the coach.| The wheelers ought to start the coach, and this can be effected by touching them with the whip if they require a hint. Do not, however, on any account hit a wheeler which is inclined to jib, but make the others get the coach moving.
To be able to start horses well is perhaps the most difficult thing which the young driver has to learn. ”

“ The coachman, on the contrary, is a straight-up, selfish, and sulky brute, who has no complaisance for any one born of a woman; he is not even a rogue, for being seated outside, he has no communication with the passengers. He gives you back your purse if you drop it in his coach; he is the type of the omnibus-driver. ”

“ The chain would again be thrust through the loops—the padlock locked, and the leathern sack be lifted over the counter and be transferred to the box of the expectant coach, crushed under the feet of the driver who, carefully gathering up his reins, would give a chirrup and whistle to his trampling team—off would dart the coach, and the fat old lady, and the lean old gentleman, and the cross baby between them, who by this time is very red in the face, would disappear in thick wreaths of gray dust up the turnpike leading to Cochecton on the Delaware waters. ”

“ Under these circumstances, and the generally hard and rough life they led, it is not to be wondered at that coachmen were originally a rough and brutal class of men. They cannot be paralleled nowadays,223 and the difference between them and the later ornaments of the box can only be understood by comparing a modern van-driver with the coachman of an aristocratic carriage—and then we should be doing injustice to the van-man. ”

“ In pulling up, the driver must pull the reins equally, but rather those of the wheelers first. If this is attended with difficulty, take the wheelers’ reins in the right hand, and pull till they hang well on the breeching, or on the pole chains, thus increasing the leaders’ draught so much that they will easily be pulled up.
When a young coach-horse is stopped, it should be very gradually—allowing at least ten yards to do it in; for, if it be attempted to stop him short, he will resist. A careful driver will never keep his carriage standing in a great thoroughfare ”

“ The coach holds nine inside, having a seat across from door to door, where we in England put our legs: so that there is only one feat more difficult in the performance than getting in, and that is getting out again. There is only one outside passenger, and he sits upon the box. As I am that one, I climb up; and while they are strapping the luggage on the roof, and heaping it into a kind of tray behind, have a good opportunity of looking at the driver. ”

“ But he went on with an empty coach, for the Englishmen preferred to wait over for another driver, and one of them was heard to remark that he would rather go in a hearse than in a stage with such a madman holding the reins.
But far and wide Billy's mad ride was laughed at, and he received no reprimand from the company, though he richly deserved it.
CHAPTER XXI. WINNING A REWARD.
Driving over the trail through the Rocky Mountains, the drivers were constantly annoyed by road-agents, whose daring robberies made it most dangerous for a coach to pass over the line. ”

“ You can also tighten the curb-chains, or put the reins lower down on the bits. Do not pull at your horses more than you can help, but directly you feel that they are getting the best of you stop at once, and if possible give them up to another driver. |Pace should suit the slowest horse.| If three of the team can go ten miles an hour, and the fourth horse only eight, keep the three back to the slow one, for you cannot make him go up to the others without galloping. When, however, you are on a road coach, it is better to let the slow horse gallop than to lose time. ”

“ In America, Russia, and parts of Germany, the driver sits low, but places his foot against a bar in front of the footboard; this in their carriages is longer than in ours. Four horses can be driven very well and easily in a low landau, and very powerful-pulling and fast-trotting horses held in with apparent ease. Our coachmen are often in danger of being pulled over by their horses, and certainly when an accident happens in a collision they are easily thrown from the boxes. They do not have the purchase and security that the Russian drivers seem to possess. ”

“ When we approached very slippery places, where the road frequently was barely of a sufficient width for the coach to pass between the high sharp rocks on one side and the frightful chasm on the other, the driver, in guarding against catastrophes, would put his two spans on their utmost speed. ”

“ The latter renders it a common practice for passengers to pay an extra shilling for the box-place, whereas formerly a man would have given something to be any where else. We are told that good coachmen are becoming, in proportion to their number, more scarce every year, because, owing to the fine state of the roads, the condition of the cattle, and the improved method of road-work, coach-horses are so above their work, that the assistance of the driver is seldom required. ”

“ Our coach swayed fear- fully the wheels ever and anon striking fire as they whirled over the rocks, with a double span of horses upon a keen run, tossing us up and down, giving us a few hard strokes of the head against the cover of the coach.
At length Elder Benson, in a tremulous yet powerful voice, demanded of the driver to moderate his speed, which was responded to by an increased and more furious lashing of the foaming, panting steeds; thus, and more, with a drunken coachman (as we afterwards learned) , we tore along down the mountain, every moment in jeopardy of being dashed to ”

“ Some improvements were made in private carriages at this period, but there was little change for the better in the stage coaches, which differed slightly from the “machine” of a century earlier; the driver’s seat was safer and less uncomfortable, and that was the only noteworthy alteration. An advertisement of 1750 announces “accommodation behind the coach for baggage and passengers; fares 21s., and servants 10s. 6d., riding either in the basket behind or on the box beside the driver.” ”

“ It can't be done.' The drivers on these roads, who certainly get over the ground in a manner which is quite miraculous, so twist and turn the team about in forcing a passage, corkscrew fashion, through the bogs and swamps, that it was quite a common circumstance on looking out of the window, to see the coachman with the ends of a pair of reins in his hands, apparently driving nothing, or playing at horses, and the leaders staring at one unexpectedly from the back of the coach, as if they had some idea of getting up behind. ”

“ Between the down mails leaving London and the day coaches arriving, none with less than three lamps, and many with five, and some even with six, it was a bad look-out for travellers who drove horses that were frightened at lights. Indeed, I have known some persons very nervous on this subject. They seemed to think that because the strong light dazzled them, it must have the same effect upon the coachman's eyes; and, when I have been driving a coach very strongly lighted, I have known men to leave the road and drive into a field to get out of my way. ”

“ The London "'bus men" do have their pole chains very slack, and they are right, because their horses are continually falling upon the slippery streets, and it gives them room to struggle and get up again with little danger of breaking the pole; but this does not apply to road work, and there, if the pace is very fast, it is dangerous from its tendency to make the coach rock.
I am always puzzled when I see coachmen driving with the present fashion of long coupling reins. What good can they see in them? Here again the 'bus men, who I suppose set the example, have reason on their side. ”

“ Feel your horses' mouths gently as a reminder that something is coming, give the word, let them have sufficient rein, let the wheelers into their collars first, and go off quietly at a walk. If you are driving a green team, or a mean team, or a team you are making, always start from the stable yourself. Even if your coachman is a better coachman than you are, it is best to get away with them yourself, and to keep them amenable from the start. Although it is advised here to let the wheelers start the coach, the ideal way is to let all four horses feel their traces at the same moment ”

“ The man who can do this may be said to have passed his postgraduate examination as a first-class coachman.
There are not many men who can do that, but there is plenty of sport to be had in driving four horses, this side of that supreme ability. Men who lack the time, money, knowledge, and experience to put a coach on the road may still, with benefit to themselves, and to the inmates of their stables, [355] drive four horses. ”

“ The placing of springs under the driving-box was due to the suggestion of John Warde, earliest of the coaching amateurs, who had been taught the art of driving a stage-coach by Jack Bailey, a famed coachman on the old “Prince of Wales,” between London and Birmingham. He had found the jolting received directly from the axle an intolerable infliction on a long drive, and urged coach-proprietors to provide springs. ”

“ It is not desirable to hold horses too hard, but if a lot of slack is out a coachman is helpless if a horse falls or anything else goes wrong. Moreover, horses generally go better for being well held together. A coachman driving a coach, such as they used to be, who loosed his horses' heads, was generally soon brought to the use of his whip, whilst the same horses, well held together, would be fresh at the end of their stage. ”

“ Thus very often, except on long-distance stages, even the smart day-coaches carried no guard, and when they did, his functions were not so much to safeguard the coach in the original sense as to help the coachman by skidding and unskidding down hill, and to look after the way-bill and the passengers’ luggage. ”

“ The “classic” age had not arrived, and bad roads, ill-made coaches, and poor horses, combined with long hours of driving to render travelling quite dangerous enough, without the highwaymen’s aid. Coachmen drove long distances in those days, and sometimes fell asleep from sheer weariness—a failing which did not conduce to the safety of the passengers. But the old coach-proprietors did not do the obvious thing—make the stages shorter and change the coachman more frequently. ”

“ It was not only necessary that a coachman should be able to drive well, which required time and practice to acquire, but, what was of nearly equal importance, he had to learn how to get his coach quick through the country. Indeed, his was a position of no small responsibility, for he had the lives and limbs of the passengers in his hands, and as, when was sometimes the case with a strong opposition, his orders were simply "be first" his was no very enviable situation. When he could do all this with the minimum of wear and tear of the stock, he was a very valuable man to his employers. ”