USE OF CAERIAGES IN TOWNS. 2o5 



and throu2:li the crowded streets of the metro- 

 polls, aud never once came to grief. 



Let me now refer to the use of wheel car- 

 riaofes in towns, which is not of verv ancient 

 date among the English people. During the 

 reign of James 1. the drivers of both public and 

 private carriages had no other accommodation 

 than a bar, or driver's chair, placed very low 

 behind the horses; m the following reign they 

 rode postilion fashion. 



After the Eestoration they appeared with whip 

 and spurs, and towards the end of the century 

 mounted a coachman's box. This box, covered 

 with a hammer-cloth, was in reality a box, and 

 within it, or in a leather pouch attached to it, 

 were tools for mending: broken wheels or 

 shivered panels, in the event of accidents occur- 

 ring, which were by no means uncommon ; in 

 consequence, first, of the defective construction 

 of the vehicles, which, according to Davenant, 

 were " uneasily hung, and so narrow that he 

 took them for sedans on wheels;" in the 

 second place, from the clumsy driving of carmen 

 in the crowded thoroug^hfares ; and, lastlv and 

 principall}^ from the nature of the streets them- 

 selves, full of all the worst perils a coach- 

 man could have to encounter. The state of 



