Early Carriages and Roads — Background and Themes

Footnotes were moved to the ends of the text they pertain to and numbered in one continuous sequence.

EARLY CARRIAGES AND ROADS

BY SIR WALTER GILBEY, Bart.

London VINTON & CO., Ltd., 9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, E.C.

_The use of carriages, coaches and wheeled conveyances have had an intimate relationship with the social life of English people from an early period in history._

_Many instructive books have appeared on the subject of carriages generally, but these have been for the most part written by experts in the art of coach and carriage building._

_In this publication, attention has been given to the early history of wheeled conveyances in England and their development up to recent times._

_Elsenham Hall, Essex._ _April, 1903._

First Use of Wheeled Vehicles 2

Badness of Early Roads 3

Saxon Vehicles and Horse Litters 4

Continental Carriages in the 13th and 14th Centuries 8

Conveyances in Henry VI.’s Time 11

“Chariots” First Used on Great Occasions 12

First Use of Carriages: called Coaches 13

Coaches First Used by Queen Elizabeth 16

Duke of Brunswick, 1588, Forbids Use of Coaches 20

The Introduction of Springs 23

Steel Springs Introduced 24

The First Hackney Coaches 26

Excessive Number of Coaches in London 28

Hackney Carriages and the Thames Watermen 30

Hackney Carriages a Nuisance in London 32

Licensed Hackney Carriages 33

Coaches with “Boots” 35

Carriages in Hyde Park 38

Coach and Cart Racing 40

Regulations for Hackney Carriages 41

Pepys on Carriages 43

Glass Windows in Carriages 45

Improvements in Carriages 47

Pepys’ Private Carriage 50

Carriage Painting in Pepys’ Day 52

The First Stage Coaches 54

Objections Raised to Stage Coaches 56

Seventeenth Century High Roads 62

Hackney Cabs as a Source of Revenue 66

Manners of the Cabman 69

Cab-driving a Lucrative Occupation 70

Coaches and Roads in Queen Anne’s Time 73

Coaching in George I.’s and II.’s Reigns 74

Dean Swift on Coaches and Drivers 76

Roads in the 18th Century 78

Speed of the 18th Century Stage Coach 80

The Application of Springs 84

Outside Passengers 87

Roads in George III.’s Time 88

Improvements in Stage Coaches 90

Regulations for Mail and Stage Coaches 94

Mail Coach Parade on the King’s Birthday 95

The Mail Coachman and Guard 97

“The Road” in Winter 100

Difference Between Stage and Mail Coach 102

The “Golden Age” of Coaching 104

Heavy Taxation of Coaches 111

Private and Stage Coaches, 1750-1830 116

Varieties of Carriage 120

“Going to Bury Fair” _Frontispiece_

Flight of Princess Ermengarde 9

Queen Elizabeth’s Travelling Coach 17

Hackney Coaches in London, 1637 29

Coach of Queen Elizabeth’s Ladies 35

The Machine, 1640-1700 Face 56

Mr. Daniel Bourn’s Roller Wheel Waggon, 1763 79

Travelling Posting Carriage (1), 1750 83

Travelling Posting Carriage (2), 1750 85

Portrait of Mr. John Palmer Face 92

Portrait of Mr. Macadam 104

London Hackney Cab (Boulnois’ Patent) 115

Travelling Post, 1825-35 Face 118

King George IV. in His Pony Phaeton 120

EARLY CARRIAGES AND ROADS.

Only some three hundred and fifty years have elapsed since wheeled conveyances for passengers came into use in England; but, once introduced, they rapidly found favour with all classes of society, more especially in cities. The progress of road-making and that of light horse-breeding are so intimately connected with the development of carriages and coaches that it is difficult to dissociate the three. In the early days of wheeled traffic the roads of our country were utterly unworthy of the name, being, more particularly in wet weather, such quagmires that they were often impassable.

Over such roads the heavy carriages of our ancestors could only be drawn by teams of heavy and powerful horses, strength being far more necessary than speed; and for many generations the carriage or coach horse was none other than the Great or Shire Horse. Improved roads made rapid travel possible, and the increase of stage coaches created a demand for the lighter and more active harness horses, for production of which England became celebrated.

If comparatively little has been said concerning horses, it is because the writer has already dealt with that phase of the subject in previous works.[1]

[1] _The Great Horse, or War Horse; Horses, Past and Present._ By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. (Vinton and Co., Ltd.)

FIRST USE OF WHEELED VEHICLES.