[CHAPTER IX.]
Public and private conveyances in Austria and Hungary—An English dragsman posed—The Vienna race-meeting—Gentleman “Jocks”—A moral exemplified.
All matters connected with the management and treatment of horses are better understood in Austria and Hungary than in any other part of the Continent; but even there they have not arrived at the completeness so familiar here. The public conveyances still partake of the genus diligence, though they have the advantage of being divided into two classes—first and second. In the latter smoking is allowed.
The horses are yoked much in the same manner as in France—three at wheel, and any number in pairs before them, as the nature of the road may require. The travelling pace is about eight English miles per hour, and to this they adhere. The length of the posts, or stages, makes a journey more tedious than it would otherwise be, as it always conveys the impression that the last four or five miles of the sixteen or eighteen has to be performed by jaded cattle, which must use them up more quickly, in the long run, than letting them work in more reasonable distances. If economy be the object, it must certainly be negatived in the end by the last four or five miles which are tacked on to every post.
The conductor, or guard, goes through the whole journey, be it long or short; but the driver is changed at every stage, with the horses. The public conveyances at Vienna and Pesth are excellent, very superior to anything we have in London. The carriages for hire in the streets consist of open britzskas and landaus, with pairs of horses, which are of a very good class. The drivers are very respectable men, and excellent coachmen. They drive very fast, and, though the streets are narrow and tortuous, collisions are very rare. There are also close carriages (broughams) with one horse or a pair, the former being called coupés, and not held in much favour with the élite.
The tariff is not excessive, and a wrangle is rarely heard.
With reference to private equipages, although they imitate as much as possible the English style, they invariably fail in some little particular, which, to an English critic, stamps the turn-out as continental. For instance, the coachman sits low, with his knees bent, having one rein in each hand; the horses are so coupled that their heads touch each other; the pole-pieces are so tight as to destroy any action which the horses might otherwise display.
Some years ago I made the acquaintance of a noble prince in Hungary, who owned a large stud of horses of all descriptions—racers, hunters, harness-horses, and hacks. He invited me to stay with him during the race-week at Vienna, asking me at the same time if I would drive his drag each day to the course, assuring me that it was appointed quite in the English style, and that I should feel myself entirely at home.