and barring the fault peculiar to it of warping, the yew is a capital stick. Holly is now in almost universal use for whips of English style, and of all whips and sticks is undoubtedly to be preferred. Some thorns are also used, but it is rare to find that sort of stick with the taper and feeling or life of hollies, they being mostly of nearly uniform substance from butt-end to point.
Since the publication of the coaching book, entitled "Down the Road," in which is an illustration of the dog-legged four-horse whip presented to the author by the professional coachman, Tom Hennessy, no dragsman's or tandem driver's collection of whips is considered complete without at least one whip with a single crook in the stick.
Driving aprons are important in the equipment of a tandem, and should be in keeping with its character. Bedford cords, box cloths, and other materials of drab color are most durable, and for sporting traps, most effective in appearance, and their care involves comparatively little expenditure of time and labor.
Aprons of plain dark colors furnish an agreeable contrast to the driver's top-coat and the servant's livery greatcoat when those garments are of drab; but the work of keeping them clean is slavish, and continual, and they quickly fade and lose their freshness, on account of which objections to them, drab ones, being free from the faults named, are preferred.
A turnout, with a simple apron for the front seat, and none for the shivering groom on the hind seat, has an unfinished look, suggestive of insufficient means or want of thoughtfulness for the comfort of the servant.
Devotees of the art of tandem driving, who have not enjoyed the treat of a perusal of that charming book entitled "Frank Fairleigh," by Mr. Smedley, may be entertained by the author's description of the turnout of the Honorable George Lawless, as follows:—
"Perched high in mid-air, upon some mysterious species of dog-cart, bearing a striking resemblance to the box to a mail-coach, which had contrived by some private theory of development of its own, to dispense with its body, while it had enlarged its wheels to an almost incredible circumference; perched on top of this remarkable machine, and enveloped in a white greatcoat undermined in every direction by strange and unexpected pockets, was none other than the Hon. George Lawless.
"The turnout was drawn by a pair of thoroughbreds, driven tandem, which were now, their irascible tempers being disturbed by delay, relieving their feelings by executing a kind of hornpipe upon their hind legs."
The top-coat recognized as the standard for driving at the present day is called a "driving-cape," doubtless from its resemblance in the matter of amplitude of skirts to a sleeved cape; and when properly constructed as to its lines, balance, and the position of its pockets is a very "down-the-road" looking garment—a refinement of the "Upper-Benjamin" of stage-coach days. Made of stout cloth of drab color, not white; furnished with a velvet collar which hangs off from the neck to allow room inside it for a coaching muffler with a bit of spot; the leather-lined pockets, with flaps of liberal size, placed low in the skirts for convenience of access; the outward seams strapped and stoutly sewn, and lined with an effective plaid of woollen, when hung at proper balance on the shoulders, which sustain its whole weight, and whence, in a downward direction, its circumference increases until, at the bottom of the skirts, which reach the knees, it stands out from the wearer all around as if hooped inside, it is very comfortable and of workmanlike appearance whether worn or laid down on the box-cushion of a coach or tandem cart.