The Victoria — The Majl Phaeton. 533 



In London the great job-masters reserve their very finest bred and high-actioned pairs 

 for the barouches of noble and wealthy customers. A barouche horse means something with 

 more blood than the finest coach-horse. 



Barouches are built in all sizes, down to that suitable for a pair of fourteen-hand cobs ; 

 but for such a purpose, where only one carriage is kept, the sociable landau is more useful, 

 and generally preferred. 



For persons much in society a barouche alone is not a suitable carriage. In winter or 

 for night-work it must be supplemented by a coach, a sociable, or a brougham. A full-sized 

 barouche is quite out of place except where there is a complete establishment of horses and 

 servants. 



THE VICTORIA. 



The victoria is a comparatively modern invention, or, rather, it is an adaptation of the 

 old cabriolet phaeton, and as a fashionable carriage is a creation of the French Empire ; it 

 was in common use as a hack carriage in Paris long before it obtained a name in England. 



The victoria has the advantage of being as easy for a lady to take her seat in or descend 

 from, without letting down a seat, or the chance of soiling her robes on the wheels, as a brougham. 

 It also displays better than any other carriage the toilette of the occupant, literally from the 

 crown of her head to the sole of her foot. Certainly, if it is worth while to expend a fortune 

 on clothes, it is still more worth while to show them at full length, and under the most advantageous 

 arrangements. What the brougham is for the face of a beauty, the victoria is for the robes 

 — a frame for the one, a pedestal for the other. 



It has also the not small advantage to a certain class of involving, if desired, the utmost 

 possible expense for the accommodation of the smallest number of persons — a pair of horses 

 of great price, a coachman and footman of high class, in costly liveries ; an expensive carriage 

 to convey two persons — a carriage only available for ornamental purposes, for it cannot be 

 used at night, or in dirty weather, or in the country, or anywhere except for the Park, for 

 a little shopping and a little visiting. In cold, dry, frosty weather, the victoria has another 

 merit — it may be employed as a vehicle for displaying a vast breadth and length of costly 

 furs. 



A light victoria may be drawn by one small blood-horse, but that one should have very 

 fine action. The footman may be dispensed with, when not required to leave cards and 

 make inquiries, as the victoria has no door to open, or steps to let down. 



THE MAIL PHAETON. 



Next come the leading types of four-wheeled carriages which it is presumed that the 

 owner selects because he likes driving himself, in which in no case is a coachman, in the strict 

 sense of the term (that is, a ponderous artist in a gorgeous uniform, shorts, and silk stockings), 

 employed, except by accident, and under protest on his part. The proper servant for carriages 

 driven by the owner is a top-booted groom, dressed in a black or Oxford mixture or dark- 

 coloured livery coat. The oldest of this class still in use is the mail phaeton, of which, in its 

 original shape, size, and weight, very few specimens remain. 



By degrees, as our roads improved, and long journeys by the highways were discon- 

 tinued in favour of the rail, all travelling-carriages, and notably the mail phaeton, which 

 has always been both a town and fashionable carriage, were made lighter. The heavy 

 mail-coach under-spring apparalus having disappeared, the word mail has lost its original 



