their then possessor—will afford a pretty bone
of contention for exponents of the law. All
that the driver has to find as his equipment, is
his whip (occasionally, by some masters, lost
nose-bags are placed to his account), and having
provided himself with that, and his license, he
can go forth.

But there is a very large class of London
people to whom the possession of a private
carriage of their own is the great ambition of life,
a hope long deferred, which, however sick it
has made the heart for years, coming at last
yields an amount of pleasure worth the waiting
for. Nine-tenths of these people job their
horses. Those pretty, low-quartered,
high-crested Brougham horses, with the champing
mouths and the tossing heads, which career
up and down the Ladies' Mile; those splendid
steppers, all covered with fleck and foam, which
the bewigged coachman tools round and round
Grosvenor-square while " waiting to take up;"
those long, lean-bodied, ill-looking but serviceable
horses which pass their day in dragging
Dr. Bolus from patient to patient, all are
jobbed. It is said that any man of common
sense setting up his carriage in London will
job his horses. There are four or five great
job-masters in town who have the best horses in
the metropolis at command, and who are neither
dealers nor commission-agents, but with whom
jobbing is the sole vocation. And, at a given
price, they can, at a few days' notice, provide
you with any class of animal you may
require. Either in person, or by a trusty agent,
they attend all the large horse-fairs in the
kingdom; or should they by any chance be
unrepresented there, they are speedily waited on
by the dealers, who know the exact class of
horse which the job-master requires. Horses
are bought by them at all ages, from three to
seven. Young horses are begun to be broken-in
at four years old, and when their tuition is
commenced in the autumn, they are generally found
ready for letting in the succeeding spring. The
breaking-in is one of the most difficult parts of
the job-master's business. The young horse is
harnessed to a break by the side of an experienced
old stager, known as a " break-horse," who does
nothing but " break" work, who is of the utmost
assistance to the break-driver, and who, when
thoroughly competent, is beyond all price. Such
a break-horse will put up with all the vagaries
of his youthful companion, will combine with
the driver to check all tendencies on the part
of the neophyte to bolt, shy, back, or plunge,
and if his young friend be stubborn, or devote
himself to jibbing or standing stock-still, will
seize him by the neck with his teeth, and, by a
combination of strength and cunning, pull him
off and set him in motion.

The prices charged by job-masters vary according
to the class of horse required and according
to the length of the job. Many country gentlemen
bringing their families to London for the
season, hire horses for a three or a six months'
job, and they have to pay in proportion a much
higher rate than those who enter into a yearly
contract. For the very best style of horse,
combining beauty, action, and strength, a job-master
will charge a hundred guineas a year, exclusive
of forage; but the best plan for the man of
moderate means, who looks for work from his
horses in preference to show, and who has
neither time, knowledge, nor inclination to be in
a perpetual squabble with grooms and
corn-chandlers, is to pay for his horses at a certain
price which includes forage and shoeing. Under
these conditions, the yearly price for one horse
is ninety guineas; for a pair, one hundred and
sixty guineas; and for this payment he may be
certain of getting sound, serviceable, thoroughly
creditable looking animals (which he may
himself select from a stud of two or three hundred),
which are well fed by the job-master, and shod
whenever requisite by the farrier nearest to the
hirer's stables, to whom the job-master is responsible,
and which, when one falls lame or ill,
are replaced in half an hour. Having made this
arrangement, the gentleman setting up his
carriage has only to provide himself with stables,
which, with coach-house, loft, and man's room,
cost from twenty pounds to thirty pounds a year,
to hire a coachman, costing from one guinea to
twenty-five shillings a week, to purchase a
carriage-setter (a machine for hoisting the
wheels to allow of their being twisted for proper
cleaning), and the ordinary pails, brushes, and
sponges, and to allow a sum for ordinary
expenses, which, according to the extravagance or
economy of his coachman, will stand him in from
six pounds to twelve pounds a year. If more
than two horses are kept, the services of a helper
at twelve shillings a week will be required, and
it is scarcely necessary to add that if day and
night service have to be performed, at the end
of three months neither horses nor coachman will
fulfil their duties in a satisfactory manner.
Indeed, there are several otherwise lucrative jobs
which the job-masters find it necessary to terminate
at the end of the first year; the acquisition
of " their own carriage" proving such a delight
to many worthy persons that they are never
happy except when exhibiting their glory to their
friends, and this is aided by ignorant, unskilful,
and cheap drivers taking so much out of their
hired cattle as utterly to annihilate any chance
of gain on the part of the real proprietor of the
animal.

As a provision for sick or overworked horses,
each principal job-master has a farm within
twenty miles of London, averaging about two
hundred acres, where, in grassy paddock or
healthy loose-boxes, the debilitated horses regain
the health and condition which the constant
pelting over London stones has robbed them of.
Generally speaking, however, the health of a
jobbed horse is wonderful; in the first place, he
is never purchased unless perfectly sound, and
known by the best competent judges to be
thoroughly fitted for the work which he is likely
to undergo; then he is fed with liberality (six
feeds a day are on the average allowed when in
full work); and, lastly, there is generally a
certain sense of decency in his hirer which