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CLYTBMNESTRA-- COACH. 



1784, diiring which year party spirit liad raged with 

 great violence ill Pennsylvania, he was elected to llie 

 legislature of that state, to assist in opposing the con- 

 stitutionalists, who were so termed in consequence of 

 their upholding the old constitution, which was just- 

 ly deemed deficient. Pennsylvania is greatly indebt- 

 ed to liis exertions for the amelioration of her penal 

 code, which had previously been of so sanguinary a 

 nature as to produce extreme and almost universal 

 discontent. Mr Clymer was also a member of the 

 convention which framed the. present constitution of 

 the federal government, and was elected to the first 

 congress which met when it was about to be carried 

 into operation. After serving throughout the term, 

 he declined a re-election. In 1781, a bill liaving 

 been passed in congress, imposing a duty on spirits 

 distilled within the united States, he was phiced at 

 the head of the excise department, in the state of 

 Pennsylvania. In the year 1796, he was appointed, 

 together with colonel Hawkins and colonel Pickens, 

 to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee and Creek 

 Indians of Georgia. He subsequently became the 

 first president of the Philadelphia bank, and of the 

 academy of arts. He died, Jan. 23, 1813, in the se- 

 venty-fourth year of his age, at Morrisville, Bucks 

 county, Pennsylvania. 



CLYTEMNESTRA ; daughter of king Tyndarus 

 and Leda, and twin-sister of Helen. She bore her 

 husband, Agamemnon, two daughters, Iphigenia and 

 Electra, and one son, Orestes. During the absence 

 of Agamemnon, in the war against Troy, she be- 

 stowed her favours on ^Egisthus, and, in connexion 

 with him, murdered Agamemnon on his return from 

 Troy, and, together with her paramour, governed 

 Mycene ior seven years. Orestes killed them both. 

 See Agamemnon and Orestes. 



CNIDUS, or GNIDUS ; a town in Caria, a province 

 of Asia Minor, and a favourite place with Venus, who 

 was, therefore, surnamed the Gnidian goddess. She 

 liad there three temples. The first, probably, erect- 

 ed by the Lacedaemonian Dorians, was called the 

 temple of Venus Doris. The second was consecrated 

 to her under the name of Venus Acr&a. The third, 

 called the temple of the Gnidian Venus, and, by the 

 inhabitants, the temple of Venus Euploea, contained 

 Praxiteles' marble statue of the goddess, one of the 

 masterpieces of art. Tliis was afterwards removed 

 to Constantinople, where it perished in a conflagra- 

 tion in 1461. 



COACH. The coach is distinguished from other 

 vehicles chiefly as being a covered box, hung on 

 leathers. In the most ancient tunes, kings and princes 

 had particular vehicles which they used on solemn 

 occasions, but these were not covered. We find in 

 the Bible, that such carriages were used in Egypt in 

 the time of Joseph. Covered wagons also appear 

 to be of great antiquity ; for, even hi Moses' time, 

 such wagons were used for carrying loads, and the 

 wandering Scytiiians are said to have had wagons 

 covered with leather, to protect them from the 

 weather : so, likewise, had the Spartans, who called 

 these carriages kanathron. The seat of the coach- 

 man is also a very ancient invention of Oxylus, an 

 ^Etolian who took possession of the kingdom of Elis 

 1 100 years B. C. The Romans had both open and 

 covered carriages, the latter being used to transport 

 sick soldiers and aged people. The covered car- 

 riage, called carruca, first mentioned by Pliny, was 

 invented later. It was adorned with ivory, brass, 

 and, finally, with gold and silver, and used only to 

 convey magistrates, and distinguished individuals of 

 both sexes. The carrucee were drawn by mules. 

 Covered carriages were therefore known to the an- 

 cients; but -they were not acquainted with coaches, 

 or carriages suspended on leathers. These are said 



to have been invented in Hungary, and their name, 

 which, in the language of tliat country, signifies co- 

 vered, is also of Hungarian origin. Others derive 

 the German name of the coach, Kutsc/ie, from 

 (lutsche, which signified, formerly, a bed; or from 

 Kitsee or Kutsee, considering this as the place where 

 the vehicle was invented. Others think that coaches 

 were invented in France. Charles V. is said to have 

 used such a conveyance, when afflicted with I he 

 gout, and to have slept in it. The invention of 

 coaches in Hungary is said to have taken place in 

 1457 ; but Isabella, the wife of Charles VI. of France, 

 is said to have made her entrance into Paris, in 1405, 

 in a covered carriage, suspended on leathers. As, at 

 first, none but ladies used these carriages in France, 

 they were called, from this circumstance, chariots da- 

 marets. Under Francis 1. the construction of coaches 

 was much improved. They were called carrosses ; 

 and the openings were furnished with leather cur- 

 tains. The first man who made use of one of these 

 carriages was Raimond de Laval, a cavalier of the. 

 court of Francis I., who was so large that no horse 

 could carry him. His coach, and that of the cele- 

 brated Diana of Poitiers, duchess of Valentinois 

 (q. v.), were made about 1540, and were the first car- 

 riages on springs in Paris ; and, ten years after, there 

 were not more than three such vehicles in that city. 

 Under Henry III. (1574 89), the fourth coach was 

 introduced. This was kept by a private person. Be- 

 fore that time they were considered as belonging ex- 

 clusively to the royal family, or to very distinguished 

 officers. Henry IV., who is known to have been 

 murdered in a coach, kept but one carriage for him- 

 self and his wife, as appears from a letter, in which 

 he tells a friend, as an excuse for his absence, that his 

 wife was using the coach. The marslial Bassom- 

 pierre, in 1599, brought the first coach with glass 

 windows from Italy into France. In 1658, there were 

 520 coaches in Paris, and the number went on con- 

 tinually increasing. In Germany, the emperors and 

 princes used coaches as early as the fifteenth century. 

 The emperor Frederic III., for instance, went in one 

 to Frankfort in 1474. In 1509, the wife of the elec- 

 tor Joachim I. of Brandenburg had a gilded coach, 

 and twelve others ornamented with crimson. Coaches 

 are said to have been introduced into Spain in 1546, 

 and into Sweden in the last half of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. 



The oldest carriages used by the ladies in England 

 were called whirlicotes. The mother of king Richard 

 II., who accompanied him in his flight (1360), rode in 

 a carriage of this sort. But coaches, properly so 

 called, were first introduced into England from Ger- 

 many or France, in 1580, in the reign of queen Eliza- 

 beth, and the first seen in public belonged to Henry, 

 earl of'Arundel. In 1601, the year before the queen's 

 death, an act was passed to prevent men from riding 

 in coaches, as being effeminate; but they were in 

 common use in London about the year 1605. Twenty 

 years afterwards, hackney-coaches were introduced. 

 They were prohibited in 1635, and, in 1637, only fifty 

 hackney-coachmen were licensed. The numbtr of 

 coaches was increased by degrees, and, hi 1770, as 

 many as 1000 were licensed. The duty on coaches 

 in England, in 1778, the number then kept being 

 23,000, amounted to 117,000. The total duty on 

 coaches hi England, in 1785, was 154,988 ; in Scot- 

 land, only 9000. The French invented the post- 

 chaise, the use of which was brought into England 

 by Tull, the well-known writer on husbandry. In 

 Switzerland, coaches were a rarity as late as 1650. 

 The manufacture of elegant coaches is a proof of 

 much wealth and mechanical skill in a place ; many 

 different artists being employed in their construction, 

 who become skilful only when the demand for theii 



