This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. With mock-serious confidence, this lively coaching manual teaches the art of sounding a coach-horn properly. Its author, an experienced horn-maker and driver, explains the difference between coach-horns and post-horns, arguing that shorter, well-made instruments are more practical than fashionable but cumbersome ones. He examines how size, material, and bell shape influence tone and usefulness on the road, while insisting that skill comes less from talent than from patience, practice, and care. The book offers clear, step-by-step instruction on mouth position, breath control, and lip pressure, guiding beginners toward the basic notes before more advanced calls. Blending technical advice with comic self-importance, it treats horn-blowing as both a roadside necessity and an art. The closing pages urge discreet practice, suggest exercises for building lip strength and control, and warn that restraint matters as much as proficiency in crowded streets and open country alike. A humorous anecdote from Felixstowe, featuring an elegant coach, its horses, and a struggling horn-player, caps the lesson with a comic demonstration of the manual's practical wisdom.

À propos de l'auteur

Guard, An Old

In the 1800s, the "guard" was the official Royal Mail employee who sat at the back of a horse-drawn mail coach. The guard's primary duty was to protect the mail and blow a straight post horn (the coach horn) to signal traffic, warn tollkeepers, and announce arrival times. By using the pen name "An Old Guard," the anonymous author was signaling to 19th-century readers that they were a retired, highly experienced veteran mail coach guard sharing authentic, practical expertise.