he horse which is common to
sportsmen, and of exercise of power. The art of driving as practised
to-day for pleasure without profit, and without the excitement of
racing, is of quite modern development. Oliver Cromwell, indeed, met
with a mishap in Hyde Park while driving a team of four horses presented
to him by the count of Oldenburg, which was the subject of more than one
satirical allusion by contemporary royalist writers; but two things were
needed before much enjoyment could be found in driving apart from
utility. These were the invention of carriages on springs, and the
construction of roads with smooth and solid surface. The former did not
come into general use till near the end of the 18th century, and it was
about the same period that the engineering skill of Thomas Telford and
the invention of John London Macadam combined to provide the latter. The
influence on driving of these two developments was soon apparent.
Throughout the 18th century stage-coaches, ponderous unwieldy vehicles
without springs, had toiled slowly over rough and deeply rutted tracks
as a means of communication between different parts of Great Britain;
but those who made use of them did so as a matter of necessity and not
for enjoyment. But by the beginning of the 19th century the improvement
in carriage-building and road-construction alike had greatly diminished
the discomfort of travel; and interest in driving for its own sake grew
so rapidly that in 1807 the first association of amateur coachmen was
formed. This was the Bensington Driving Club, the forerunner of many
aristocratic clubs for gentlemen interested in driving as a pastime.

In modern driving one, two or four horses are usually employed. When a
greater number than four is put in harness, as in the case of the state
equipages of royal personages on occasions of ceremony, the horses are
not driven but are controlled by "postillions" mounted on the near-side
horse of each pair. When two horses are used they may either be placed
side by side, in "double harness," which is the commoner mode of driving
a pair of horses, or one following the other, in a "tandem." Four
horses, or "four-in-hand," are harnessed in two pairs, one following the
other, and called respectively the "leaders" and the "wheelers"--the
same terms being used for the two horses of a tandem.

Though it is a less difficult accomplishment to drive a single horse
than a tandem or four-in-hand, or even a pair, it never