In the following pages an attempt has been made to explain to beginners the rudimentary principles and niceties of driving.

In most treatises on this subject the minute details have been entirely omitted, the writer taking for granted that the reader has previously acquired some practical knowledge of harnessing and driving.

It is of course impossible to describe in a short essay every method of handling the ribbons, for well-known authorities even of the present day differ on so many points, that to discuss all would take too long. Nevertheless, as nothing has been considered too trifling to be explained, it is hoped that these hints may be especially useful to those who may not have been able to obtain any previous experience, and have not a thoroughly competent tutor at hand to teach them.

The difficulties which have to be overcome are so numerous that they cannot all be discussed in detail, for one of the greatest charms of driving consists in the ever-varying and complicated problems which are being constantly placed before the driver to solve—problems which must be solved at once without hesitation—and in no sport or pastime does the old saw, “He who hesitates is lost,” more frequently prove true than in that of driving. Thus, though it happens that the same result may be obtained in a variety of ways by the practised hand, these notes being especially intended for the instruction of beginners, the author has endeavoured to solve, in the most simple and lucid manner, those problems only which are most likely to puzzle the novice.

After all, there is no way of learning to drive so instructive as sitting on the box seat beside a first-class coachman, and carefully watching the movements of his hands. The novice is always tempted to confine his attention to the horses, and so omits to notice the manipulation of the reins at the critical moment. This omission on his part should be carefully avoided, as the crisis is over in so short a space of time that it is most important to keep the attention fixed almost entirely on the driver’s hands, and carefully to commit to memory every detail of the handling of the ribbons. In this work no new theories on the art of driving have been advanced, but many very old ones have been specially emphasized by repetition—a course which has been considered justifiable on account of their great importance.