When driving on greasy roads it is always well to keep as far away as possible from any vehicle in front, whether it be a motor-car, a horse-drawn vehicle, or a cycle, as this allows plenty of time to pull up slowly and gradually.

In regard to the various accidents which may happen to the car itself through outside causes, one thing to be remembered is that the fly-wheel or front axle of the car is probably not more than seven or eight inches above the ground; therefore if very rutty roads are being used, it is well to direct the wheels out of the cart ruts and keep one rut in the centre of the vehicle. It is also well to keep a good look-out when entering park gates or stable yards where high centre stones are often placed, for if anything is struck by the fly-wheel it is almost certain to break or bend the crank-shaft of the engine, and a costly repair is necessitated.

A Punctured Tyre.-There is another little difficulty in regard to steering, and that is if a front-wheel tyre bursts or punctures, that side of the car is immediately somewhat lower, and owing to the tyre being flat, it exerts a severe retarding tendency to that side of the vehicle, with the result that if the right-hand tyre punctures, it tries hard to run to the right. This must be resisted and the car kept firmly on its course, the brakes being applied gently but firmly, and the car pulled up as quickly as possible without a sudden jerk. To give one some idea in an exaggerated form of the power exerted by a deflated tyre we will give a personal experience. When travelling on a big racing carriage over seventy miles per hour, the front tyre was cut by a broken piece of bottle, and in a second the tyre burst. The whole tyre and tube were torn off the wheel by the centrifugal force exercised and the car was running on the iron rim. In holding the steering straight against this tremendous pull, the steering-wheel steel shaft was twisted a quarter of a turn. Of course, if the car had been allowed to deflect for one moment from a straight line at this speed, a most frightful accident would have followed.

Night-driving.- When driving at night one should never travel at a speed greater than that which affords time to pull up after seeing any object clearly by the light of your lamps. Of course if two acetylene lamps are used one can travel up to twenty-five miles an hour in perfect safety, the road being sufficiently illuminated to give plenty of time to stop; but if ordinary oil or candle lamps are used, eight or ten miles is the limit of safety. In very foggy weather it is best to turn one lamp sideways so as to indicate the side of the road. The offside lamp pointing forward should be covered with a handkerchief, to diffuse the light and cause less refraction from the fog in front.

One of the most difficult things to see on the road at night are sheep, as they make little noise when going along slowly, and seem to blend with the colour of the path. The writer remembers some years ago running into a flock of sheep from this cause when travelling late at night on a carriage having only candle lamps. The consequent smash and the amount of attendant repair bill are still engraven on his mind.

It must also be remembered that many people walking, seeing the lights of the car, assume that you see them as well as they see you. Again, it is almost impossible to believe, until one has had actual experience, how invisible some large objects are which may be on the road in front of you at night, and which it is impossible to see until one is within a few yards of them. In summer, probably owing to the roads being usually white, the light from one's lamp is much more effective than in winter. A very dark night is actually better for driving than a moonlight night with the moon partly obscured by clouds.

In conclusion, it is well to remember that under all circum. stances a fixed habit of careful driving should be practised. Reckless driving has no utility, and must result in a serious accident sooner or later. The difference in the time taken by a careful driver and by a reckless driver in a day's journey is infinitesimal. To obtain this small gain, however, the reckless driver has probably incurred a tremendous number of risks all

totally unnecessary, and caused considerable annoyance to everyone else on the road.

Probably the chief offenders in this respect are the paid mécaniciens or drivers for companies or private owners. Having no responsibility, no care, no consequences to facebeyond the possible loss of the weekly wage-infinite damage can be done by a man of this type dashing through villages and crowded thoroughfares. Therefore impress the fact on your mechanic that your car is to be driven as considerately when you are off as when you are on it, and if your instructions are not carried out, cure the complaint by dismissing the man.

Grievances in regard to the speed of motor-cars would have had no ground if every driver took upon himself the obligation of gentlemanly conduct on the road, acknowledging that the highway is public and that a large number of other persons have equal rights to its use. Therefore slacken your speed in any and every place where you think that some other user of the highway may be inconvenienced by your passage.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CHARMS OF DRIVING IN MOTORS

BY THE RT. HON. SIR FRANCIS JEUNE, K. C.B.

And it is not only

It is the duty of

THIS is an old country, and one of our most valuable pieces of inheritance is the ancient asset of good roads penetrating every corner of the island. New countries may have fine railways, but though, and perhaps because, they have fine railways they have not, and never will have, roads equal to ours. an ancient, it is also a well-preserved asset. any one who uses the roads of Great Britain for motor-cars to express his gratitude perhaps to the ancient Romans, certainly to the old turnpike trustees and to their modern successors the county councils, and I say this the more emphatically in the hope of encouraging the county councils to persevere in their good work. These roads are the sphere of the motor-car, and my belief is that, could we consult our friends the horses, there would be whatever in the case of horses corresponds to a plebiscite in favour of utilising it to the fullest extent.

Many persons did, and, I am afraid, some persons do still, accuse us of a love of too rapid progression. I feel inclined myself to plead guilty to the limited extent of acknowledging that there is a glorious exhilaration in the mere motion of a motor-car, strong, unwearying, unresting, with no drawback of regret for strain of exertion on man or beast. The mere sense of motion is a delightful thing; the gallop of a horse over elastic turf, the rush of a bicycle down-hill with a suspicion of favouring wind, the rhythmical swing of an eight-oar, the tramp. ling progress of a four-in-hand, the striding swoop on skates

across the frozen fens-all these are things of which the reminiscence and the echo come back to us with the dash and pulsations of the motor-car. Even Dr. Johnson thought that nothing was so delightful as the rapid motion of the postchaise. I should like to have given the sage a lift in a motorcar, and gained for the world the testimony to a sensation of delight by a philosopher theretofore undreamt of in hist philosophy.

And in this pleasure of motion we are, if not independent of the weather, at least almost independent of seasons. The hotter the sun the more agreeable the fanning of the air through which we pass, and the cold of winter, guarded against in proper fashion, carries with it its own exhilaration. To my mind the greatest pleasures and the greatest advantages derivable from the motor-car are the power of traversing large areas of the beautiful country in which it is our happiness to live. The use of motors in town is increasing and, doubtless, will greatly increase. It is no small advantage to be able to go from place to place with no thought of tiring horses and no fear of cold through waiting. But even to those living in towns, the country contributes most to the pleasure of possessing a motor. At one of the dinners of the Automobile Club, when it was suggested that motors had a future in bringing agricultural produce to the large towns, the audience agreed with the observation that, if it was desirable that the motor should bring cabbages to the workman, it was still more desirable for the motor to take the workman to the cabbages. For myself, after a long day in Court, I often feel that I am a workman who wants to be taken to the cabbages. I remember hearing it said that, in his last illness, Lord Beaconsfield derived great pleasure and benefit from driving in the lanes of the north of London, amid surroundings of the rural character of which, so near London, he had hitherto little idea. Where are those lanes now after an interval of only twenty years? The ring of suburban habitations grows constantly deeper and denser, and it is, I think, an invaluable