Accidents happen also from want of attention to the security of the bridles. The throat-lash, therefore--particularly of the wheelers--should be as tight as can be allowed without injuring respiration. There otherwise is always danger of the bridle being pulled off. Accidents, moreover, happen from galloping coach-horses down hill, or on even ground. If, indeed, a casualty then happen, it must be a bad one. The goodness of a road is no preservative against it: on the contrary, it is possible that if a coach begin to swing, it may go over from the very circumstance of the road being so level and so smooth that there is nothing on its surface to hold the wheels to the ground. If, moreover, there be two horses at wheel whose stride in their gallop differs much as to extent, the unequal draught invariably sets the coach rolling, and, unless the pace moderate, the fore-wheel passing over even a small stone, may, under such circumstances, cause the coach to upset. In respect to lateral motion, however, much depends upon the build of the carriage. In galloping coach-horses, if the leaders lead off with two legs, the motion of the coach is considerably truer, and the swing-bars are also much more at rest, than when each horse uses the same leg. It appears, then, that accidents to coaches are chiefly to be attributed either to the want of proper skill and care in the servants employed, or to what is still less pardonable, inattention on the part of their masters. Road-coachmen, fortunately, are well aware that the law looks sharply after them; and that for neglect proved against them, they are equally answerable to their employers, as these are to the public. “If I were to go upon the road,” says an amateur, “I would be a night coachman through a well-inhabited country. For six months of the year, it is undoubtedly the pleasanter service; and I never found any difference between taking rest by day or by night.” It is, however, calculated only for a man in the prime of his days, as all his energies are required. The night coachman ought to know his line of road well. He must take rest regularly, or he will be sure to become drowsy, if he do not go to sleep. He must also keep himself sober; keep a tight hand on his horses; keep the middle of the road; and be sure to keep time. The night coachman must cast his eye well forward, and get out of the way of carts and waggons in time. Although, by looking perpendicularly from his box or at the hedges, if there be any, he may always see if he be in the road, yet if he cannot throw his eye some way before his leaders’ heads, he is going at random. He will often get close to things he may meet in the road before he is aware of them; and therefore, as I have already said, it is essential that he should be wide awake, and have his horses well in hand.