r-in-hand--turn a corner in style--handle the reins in
form--take a fly off the tip of his leader's ear--square the elbows, and
keep the wrists pliant, were matters as essential to the formation of a
man of fashion as _dice or milling_: it was a principle he had long laid
down and strictly adhered to, that whatever tended to the completion
of that character, should be acquired to the very acme of perfection,
without regard to ulterior consequences, or minor pursuits.

In an early stage, therefore, of his fashionable course of studies,
the whip became an object of careful solicitude; and after some private
tuition, he first exhibited his prowess about twice a week, on the
box of a Windsor stage, tipping coachy a crown for the indulgence and
improvement it afforded. Few could boast of being more fortunate
during a noviciate: two overturns only occurred in the whole course of
practice, and except the trifling accident of an old lady being killed,
a shoulder or two dislocated, and about half a dozen legs and arms
~8~~broken, belonging to people who were not at all known in high
life, nothing worthy of notice may be said to have happened on these
occasions. 'Tis true, some ill-natured remarks appeared in one of the
public papers, on the "conduct of coachmen entrusting the reins to
young practitioners, and thus endangering the lives of his majesty's
subjects;" but these passed off like other philanthropic suggestions of
the day, unheeded and forgotten.

The next advance of our hero was an important step. The mail-coach is
considered the school; its driver, the great master of the art--the
_Phidias_ of the statuary--the _Claude_ of the landscape-painter. To
approach him without preparatory instruction and study, would be like
an attempt to copy the former without a knowledge of anatomy, or the
latter, while ignorant of perspective. The standard of excellence--the
model of perfection, all that the highest ambition can attain, is to
approach as near as possible the original; to attempt a deviation, would
be to _bolt out of the course, snap the curb, and run riot_. Sensible
of the importance of his character, accustomed to hold the reins of
arbitrary power; and seated where will is law, the mail-whip carries
in his appearance all that may be expected from his elevated situation.
Stern and sedate in his manner, and given to taciturnity, he speaks
sententiously, or in monosyllables. If he passes on the road even an
humble follower