324 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



managed matters in those days. The three last cen- 

 tnries have been, I believe, justly called the wonder- 

 working centuries ; and doubtless, within this period, 

 not only have many of those arts been restored which 

 were lost in the wreck of time, but many of the old ones 

 improved upon ; and others, of which the ancients had 

 not the most distant notion, have been invented and 

 perfected for the use and convenience of man. To 

 carriages, however, it was left to the present century to 

 put the finishing hand, and I really believe they have 

 arrived almost at perfection. Let us then look back a little 

 towards their origin, and trace them to the present day. 



I am not going to the Chariot of the Sun, nor to 

 Moses's Principia, nor to Solomon's chariots, in which he 

 dealt so largely ; but I think I have read that in the 

 time of the 'Judges,' horses and war-chariots were made 

 use of among the Canaanites, though the Israelites had 

 none. Homer's heroes fight in them ; and this will do 

 for my purpose, which is to show that their use is of very 

 'early date. What their form was it requires better 

 information than I am master of to determine ; but 

 doubtless it was various. 



If by the word coach we are to understand every kind 

 of covered carriage in which one can conveniently travel, 

 there is no doubt that some of them were known to the 

 ancients, and several of them admit of a construction 

 that places them in our list of carriages. The arcera, 

 of which mention is made in the Twelve Tables, was a 

 covered carriage, used by sick and infirm persons, and 

 • answers to our covered waggon or wain. This was 



