The Coaching Era 59 



upstart four-wheeled tortoises. ... A coach or carouch is a 

 mere engine of pride, which no one can deny to be one of the 

 seven deadly sins." 



In 1 60 1 sympathisers with the watermen succeeded in 

 getting a Bill passed in the House of Commons " to restrain 

 the excessive and superfluous use of coaches." It was thrown 

 out by the House of Lords, though in 1614 the Commons, 

 in turn, refused to pass a " Bill against outrageous coaches." 

 In 1622 the Water Poet published a work, " An Errant Thief," 

 etc., in which he dealt at length with the great injury that 

 was being done to the watermen by the coaches, saying, among 

 other things : 



"Carroches, coaches, jades and Flanders mares, 

 Do rob us of our shares, our wares, our fares ; 

 Against the ground we stand and knock our heeles, 

 Whilst all our profit runs away on wheeles. 

 And whosoever but observes and notes 

 The great increase of coaches and of boates, 

 Shall find their number more than e'er they were 

 By halfe and more, within these thirty yeare ; 

 Then watermen at sea had service still, 

 And those that stay'd at home had worke at will j 

 Then upstart hel-cart coaches were to seek, 

 A man could scarce see twenty in a weeke ; 

 But now I think a man may dayly see 

 More than the wherrys on the Thames can be." 



In the following year he published another work, " The 

 World Runnes on Wheeles," in which he dealt further with the 

 woes of the watermen. But the coaches continued to increase 

 alike in number and in public favour, and the position of the 

 watermen became still worse in 1625, when the already 

 numerous private carriages were supplemented in London by 

 hackney carriages let out for hire, though these did not, at 

 first, exceed twenty in number, while they had to be hired 

 direct from the stables of their owners. 



In 1633 it was found that the river traffic was being pre- 

 judiced more and more by the greater use of vehicles in the 

 streets. Whether or not in sympathy with the watermen, the 

 Star Chamber issued an Order which said : 



"As to a complaint of the stoppage of the streets by the 

 carriages of persons frequenting the play-house of the Black- 



