Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/735

 COACH 723 notice of coaches being suspended by straps is of that in which Louis XIV. made his public entrance about the middle of the 17th century. Carriages called whirlicotes were in limited use in England in the time of Richard II. His mother was conveyed in one on the flight of the royal family in the rebellion near the end of the 14th century. The introduction of coaches into England has been credited to Sir Thomas Chamberlayne, who was ambassador to the courts of Charles V., Philip II. of Spain, and the king of Sweden, and who, according to some, also introduced watches. But there is doubt on both points. Others say that Fitz- Allan, earl of Arundel, introduced coaches in 1555. Stow says that they were introduced in 1564 by a Dutchman, who became coach- man to Queen Elizabeth. He adds : " After a while, divers great ladies, with as great jea- lousie of the queene's displeasure, made them coaches, and rid in them up and downe the countries, to the great admiration of all the beholders ; but then by little and little they grew usual among the nobilitie, and others of sort, and within twentie years became a great trade of coach making." In 1619 the duke of Buckingham used one with six horses, and the earl of Northumberland, to ridicule this pomp, appeared in one with eight horses. The pe- riod in which coaches became familiar can therefore be referred but little further back than the time of the settlement of New Eng- land ; and for a century afterward the use of private carriages in the country was limited to the aristocracy and wealthy classes. In Lon- don coaches began to be kept for hire in 1625. In 1673 there were 20 hackney coaches in Edin- burgh, but the narrowness of the streets or state of the roads must have rendered them comparatively useless, for in 1752 there were only 14, and in 1778 only 9, while the number of sedans increased. The conveyances through the interior were the cumbersome stage wag- ons, used for carrying goods, in the tail of which, as it was called, was reserved a covered space for six or eight passengers, who sat upon the straw on the floor. In the reign of Charles II. stage-coach travelling was so poorly con- ducted, that two days were spent in going from London to Oxford, 58 miles; and in 1703, when Prince George of Denmark went from Windsor to Petworth, about 40 miles, to meet Charles of Austria, pretender to the throne of Spain, the journey occupied 14 hours, 6 of which were spent on the last 9 miles. The fact is spoken of by the historian as the more surprising, inasmuch as, except when over- turned or stuck fast in the mire, his royal highness made no stop during the journey. In the middle of the 18th century the journey from London to Birmingham, 116 miles, occu- pied nearly three days by the stage coach ; and the first regular public conveyance of the kind .between London and Edinburgh was estab- lished in 1785, when " a two-end glass coach machine, hung on steel springs, exceeding light and easy," was advertised to go through in 10 days in summer and 12 in winter, the passen- gers lying over the included Sabbath at one of the villages on the route. The modern mail coaches, running over splendid turnpike roads, making 10 miles an hour, and changing horses at every stage, were the finest in the world ; but they have been superseded by the net- work of railways covering the country. At Amsterdam the use of wheel coaches was pro- hibited in 1663, on account of the injury they did to the expensive pavement; and the bodies were consequently placed on runners, as they are used in cold countries upon the snow. Nu- merous forms of covered carriages have been in- troduced during the present century ; too many indeed to be enumerated in this article. Hack- ney coaches drawn by two horses have general- ly given place in London to the one-horse cab or cabriolet, which came into use in 1823 ; but in the cities of the United States the former are altogether preferred. The long coach called an omnibus, with the entrance behind and seats along the sides facing each other, originated in Paris in 1827, and in 1831 it began to come into use in London. In large cities it is found the most economical form of carriage, except those running on rails, for conveying the largest number of passengers through the streets. In Paris the public omnibuses are numerous and commodious, though their progress is slow as compared with those of London. One com- pany has a municipal monopoly and owns all the lines. The omnibuses on the several lines are of different colors, and the lines are let- tered from A to Z, and from AB to AC. In 1872 there were in London about 1,500 omni- buses, employing nearly 7,000 persons. The number was formerly much larger in propor- tion, for in 1844 one company employed 1,400 omnibuses ; but a large part of the city and sub- urban travel is now carried on tramways and underground railways. In New York city one was made in 1830, and run upon Broadway. In 1858 the number of these coaches employed upon various lines was 429. This was a con- siderable reduction from the number of former years, owing to the construction of horse rail- roads; and by 1873 the number was reduced to about 200. Before the introduction of rail- roads, post coaches were largely employed upon the public roads; and the demand for them in all sections of the country caused large establishments for their manufacture to grow up where the skill, capital, and materials required could be best secured. Active com- petition led to continual improvement, and the carriages became models of perfect construc- tion, combining strength with lightness and gracefulness of form, together with comfort to the passengers, in a manner unequalled in any part of the world. They are made for carry- ing nine passengers upon three seats inside, two with the driver upon the " box " in front, and three upon a seat behind this on the front edge of the top. The manufacture of stage