INDUSTRIES 



has since come once more into fashion under 

 the name of the victoria. 



Another old firm of coach-builders is that of 

 Messrs. Peters, of George Street, Portman 

 Square, whose mail phaetons were noted as long 

 ago as 1 836 for their steadiness on rough roads. 

 The year 1838 marks an important epoch 

 in the annals of coach-building, the corona- 

 tion of Queen Victoria having occasioned a 

 larger number of court-dress carriages than 

 had ever previously been seen in London. 

 About this time Luke Hopkinson, a cele- 

 brated coach-maker in Holborn, introduced the 

 briska landau, which led with subsequent im- 

 provements to the popular landau of the present 

 day. 4 



Robinson, of Mount Street, built the 

 first vehicle in the shape of the present 

 brougham in 1839. This was made for Lord 

 Brougham, from whom it took its name ; 

 other makers soon followed, and the brougham 

 quickly came into general use. 



The first omnibus was started in London 

 on 4 July 1829 by John Shillibeer, who had 

 been for a short time a coach-maker in Paris. 

 The omnibuses were drawn by three horses, 

 and ran at a fare of is. from the ' Yorkshire 

 Stingo,' in the Marylebone Road, near the 

 bottom of Lisson Grove, to the Bank. The 



London General Omnibus Company was 

 founded in 1856. Mr. Shanks, of Great 

 Queen Street, was a very famous builder of 

 four-in-hand coaches and sporting vehicles. 

 The business was wound up within the last 

 few years after the death of the proprietor. 

 Other firms of note in Middlesex are Foun- 

 tain of Enfield, Carpenter and Co., Staines, 

 and Wilkinson, of Uxbridge. Within the 

 metropolitan area are Cook and Holdway, of 

 Halkin Place ; Corben and Sons, Great Queen 

 Street ; Laurie and Marner, Ltd., Oxford 

 Street ; Holland, Oxford Street ; Gill, Chil- 

 worth Street, Hyde Park ; C. S. Windover 

 and Co., Ltd., Long Acre ; and Thomas 

 Worges and Co., Palace Street, S.W. 



The motor-car industry, of which this 

 country has now secured a share, has some 

 representative firms in Middlesex. The 

 Napier Company have works at Acton, where 

 the Napier cars, for which S. F. Edge, Ltd., 

 are agents, are made. Clement Talbot, Ltd., 

 of Ladbroke Grove, are also manufacturers. 

 The chief Middlesex makers of motor bodies 

 are Barker and Co., Ltd., Chandos Street ; 

 Mulliners Ltd., Long Acre ; Cole and Son, 

 Kensington High Street and Hammersmith ; 

 and H. S. Mulliner, Brook Street and Bedford 

 Park. 6 



PAPER 



The earliest attempt at paper-making in 

 England was made by John Tate, the younger, 

 mayor of London in 1496, who erected a 

 paper mill in the neighbouring county of 

 Hertford. This mill furnished the paper for a 

 book entitled Bartholomaeus Anghcui de proprie- 

 tatibus rerum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde 

 in 1495 (?), as we learn from the eighth verse 

 of the ' Prohemium ' : 



And John Tate the yonger loye mote he broke 

 Whiche late hath in Englande doo make this paper 



thynne 

 That now in our Englyssh this boke is prynted 



Inne. 



Many subsequent attempts were, however, 

 made before the art was successfully estab- 

 lished in this country. Between 1574 and 

 1576 another eminent London citizen, Sir 

 Thomas Gresham, set up a paper mill on his 



' Mr. George N. Hooper, to whom I am 

 indebted for much information, is of opinion that 

 landaus were introduced into England by Charles 

 Lucas Birch of Great Queen Street, Long Acre, or 

 by William Birch. 



estate at Osterley Park, Middlesex. This 

 mill formed the subject of an Exchequer in- 

 quiry to determine whether it had encroached 

 on the queen's highway or injured the queen's 

 mills. 1 This inquiry took place in 1584, and 

 from the evidence of the witnesses examined it 

 appears that Gresham's mill stood on the river 

 Brent, ' nere CruxewelPs forde,' that it was 

 erected about thirteen years previously, and 

 that it was a corn-mill when first erected. 

 Not long before his death in 1579 Gresham 

 ' ioyned a paper myll thervnto and yet vsed 

 the same myll a corne myll still, and all vnder 

 one roufe and dryven by one streame.' 2 

 Norden, writing in 1593, fourteen years after 

 Gresham's death, states that his mills .(for 

 paper, oil, and corn), were then ' decaied, a 

 corne mill excepted.' * Had his life been 

 spared there is little doubt that the great com- 



6 The writer has to acknowledge information 

 kindly supplied by Mr. C. Cooper, jun., editor of 

 the Coach Builder? Art Journ. 



1 Exch. Dep. by Com. Hil. 26 Eliz. no. 6. 



1 Ibid. Trin. 2. 



* Speculum Brit. (1723), 37. 



'95 



