COACHING DAYS AND WAYS 



the leg, with sixteen strings and rosettes to each 

 knee. The boots very short and finished with very 

 broad straps which hang over the tops and down 

 to the ancle. A hat three inches and a half 

 deep in the crown only, and the same depth in 

 the brim exactly. Each wore a large bouquet at 

 the breast, thus resembling the coachmen of our 

 nobility who, on His Majesty's birthday, appear in 

 that respect so peculiarly distinguished,' ^ 



Grimaldi the clown, then at the zenith of his 

 fame, burlesqued this get-up so mercilessly that a 

 less conspicuous garb was adopted. 



The fifteen barouche landaus which turned out 

 on this occasion, driven by * men of known skill 

 in the science of charioteering,* were well calculated 

 to set off the somewhat conspicuous attire of the 

 members : they were * Yellow-bodied carriages 

 with whip springs and dickey boxes ; cattle oi a 



^ This refers to the 'mail-coach parade,' which was first held in 1799 and for 

 the last time in 1835. The coaches, to the number of about twenty-five, were 

 either new or newly painted with the Royal Arms on the door, the stars of 

 each of the four Orders of Knighthood on the upper panel, and the name of 

 the town whither the coach ran on the small panel over each door. Coachmen 

 and guards wore new uniforms and gentlemen used to lend their best teams— 

 often also their coachmen, as appears from the passage quoted. A horseman 

 rode behind each coach to make the procession longer. The * meet ' took 

 place in Lincoln's Inn Fields and the coaches drove to St. James's, there turning 

 to come back to the General Post Office, then in Lombard Street. 



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