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CHAPTER XV. 



A MONG the " wild vicissitudes of taste," 

 -^•*- few thinofs have undero;one greater chang-es 

 than carriages used for pleasure; we need not 

 go further back than the last half century to 

 prove what we have said. Formerly there was 

 the lumbering heavy family coach, emblazoned 

 with coats of arms, with a most gaudy-coloured 

 hammer-cloth, and harness resplendent with 

 brass or silver work. Then there was the neat, 

 light travelling postchaise, and the britzska — 

 the latter imported from Germany — for those 

 who posted on the roads ; together with the 

 graceful curricle, in which the gallant An- 

 glesey and the arbiter of fashion, Count Alfred 

 d'Orsay, were wont to disport themselves in 

 the park ; the four-horse " drag," the unpre- 

 tending " tilbury," the rural-looking " dennet," 



