The loads, especially about Christmas, on the night coaches used to be "prodigious," as Dominie Samson would have said. An inexperienced eye would almost expect the coach to collapse under them when the load was of such dimensions that the ordinary luggage strap was not long enough to span the pile, but had to be supplemented with what was called a lengthening strap, which consisted of a strap about four feet long, with a buckle at one end, and the whole length perforated with holes. Nothing saved them but their admirable construction, which combined the greatest strength with moderate weight; those built to carry the heaviest loads seldom exceeding a ton or twenty-two hundredweight, and the perch being short was favourable to draught. For a great many years they were nearly all perch coaches, as it was pretty well the universal opinion that under-spring coaches were not so steady or well calculated for heavy loads and high speed. This opinion, however, was in later years considerably modified, and most coachmen that I was acquainted with had arrived at a conclusion favourable to the under-spring build. I can say this for them, that the fastest work I ever did was on one of them, and also that the heaviest load I ever drove was on another of that description; and I cannot but "speak well of the bridges which carried me safe over," for they performed their journeys admirably. They certainly possess the advantage of weighing two or three hundredweight less, and, from the splinter-bar being higher, the line of draught from the wheel horses' collars to the roller bolts is straighter. Though they are lighter, they lose nothing in strength when originally so constructed; but I would not recommend anyone to convert a perch coach, as I once did so with the result that the front boot came away from the body. CHAPTER XXI. DRIVING. Those who aspire to distinction on the coach box now-a-days, are deprived of two great helps, perhaps the two greatest helps, which were enjoyed by their predecessors--I mean example and practice. As a lad I always, when travelling, got the box seat, if possible, and never took my eyes off the coachman's hands; the consequence was that when I became old enough to be trusted with the ribbons, I naturally fell into the form which I had noticed in them, and then followed the second help, which was the opportunity of driving sixty to eighty miles a day. "Easy the lesson of the youthful train, When instinct prompts and when example guides." It is very difficult to explain clearly the motions of the hands in shooting or fishing, and it is no easier to do so in driving. A few hours of careful observation are of more value to a beginner than a great deal of instruction. If he starts in a bad form it is long odds against his ever getting out of it.