NEVER BREAK THE RANKS,
either in Crowded Streets or when setting down at Public Places: by attempting thus impatiently (and unfairly) to save a few minutes, many Carriages have been destroyed, and many Lives have been lost.
In admitting others into the Rank, (which you have often an opportunity of doing,) “Do as you would be Done by.”
THE WISEST PLAN WHEN GOING TO THEATRES,
or other extremely Crowded places, is, when the weather permits, to be put down a little before you get to them. This, however, is hardly ever necessary when going, when it is both more safe and more desirable, for many reasons, to be set down at the Door.
When your Carriage is brought to take you Home, desire your Coachman to select, for this purpose, a situation where there is least danger of being blockaded in by other Carriages, rather than that which may be nearest and most convenient to get in,—it is to little purpose that you can get Into your Carriage, if that cannot get Out.
Observe this particularly at the Play, or other Public places. If the weather is at all favourable, you can get to your Carriage in a tenth part of the time, and at half the risk, it can get to you; and even delicate Ladies will suffer less by skipping a few yards along the Pavement, than by waiting half an hour or more in the dangerous draughts of a cold Lobby or perishing Ante-room.
As soon as the Play or the Party is over, most people are in desperate haste to get Home; however, as Tom Thrifty says, “Nothing is done well that is done in a Hurry, except catching of Fleas.” The frightful Confusion created in the immediate vicinity of crowded Assemblies, will be carefully avoided by all persons who wish to preserve their Carriage from damage, and their Persons from risk: even at a large party, in a private house, to get up to the Door is sometimes a service of both difficulty and danger.
When you pull the Check String, and do not at the same time direct the Coachman to stop at any particular House, tell him to take care not to stop before the Door of any House, but in the middle between Houses, so as not to give any persons the needless trouble to come to their Door, from an idea that you are coming to their House. And desire him never to drive up to a Door in the furious manner which vulgar Coachmen seem to imagine is very stylish, but to go at his usual quiet pace.
During what is termed an Airing, get as much pure Air as you can without risk of taking Cold: rather put down the Front than the Side Windows; the former are convenient for giving directions to the Coachman: by merely uttering the word “Left” or “Right,” you may direct his track wherever you wish.