you know it, you had
better sell him, or keep him at work on the farm. Don't, at any
rate, use him on the road yourself, or let him to other people to
use thereon; for if in your hands he should commit injuries to
person or property, you would have to foot the bills; and if he
should injure the person to whom you had let him, unless you had
previously informed him of the character and habits of the horse,
you would be liable to pay all the damages caused by the viciousness
of the horse. If you should meet with an accident by reason of a
defect in the highway, you could not recover anything, however
severely you might be injured or damaged, provided the vicious
habits of the horse contributed to the accident.[105]

[105] 4 Gray, 478; 117 Mass. 204.

In riding or driving keep hold of the reins, and don't let your
horses get beyond your control; for if you do your chances of
victory in a lawsuit will be pretty slim. If you tie up your reins
for the purpose of walking in order to get warm or to lighten the
load, and let your horses go uncontrolled, and they run over a child
in the road and kill it or seriously injure it, you will probably
have to pay more than the value of the horses, unless they are very
good ones. Or if, going thus uncontrolled, they fail to use due care
and good judgment in meeting other teams, and in consequence thereof
damages occur, you would be expected to make everything
satisfactory, because your team is required to observe "the law of
the road" whether you are with it or not, especially if you turn it
loose in the highway. Even if you have hold of the reins, and your
horses get beyond your control by reason of fright or other cause,
and afterwards you meet with an accident by reason of a defect in
the highway, you cannot recover anything.[106]

[106] 101 Mass. 93; 106 Mass. 278; 40 Barb. 193.

Don't encroach upon or abuse the highway, either by crowding fences
or buildings upon its limits or by using it as a storage yard. If
you set a building on the line of the road, and then put the
doorsteps, the eaves, and the bow-windows of the building over the
line, you are liable to an indictment for maintaining a public
nuisance; and possibly you may be ordered by the court to remove
them forthwith at your own expense.[107] If you build an expensive
bank-wall for a road fence, and place any part of it over the line,
you must remove it upon the request of the public authorities, or
else