History of the Company. 8i 



Company were called upon for their quota of ^50, 

 which was levied upon the cloathing, as we read in 

 the following minute : — 



1620. December I'^th. 



*' It is this daie ordered that the L;^ w^^ o"" Companie 

 is topaie by p'ceptinto the Chanib of London p^'sently 

 toward the release of the Pallatinate shalbe Jevyed on 

 the cloathing of this fellowship by the pole each man 

 paying xx^ a peece." 



This sum was repaid to the cloathing by the 

 Court in the following July. 



The introduction of coaches ^ into England was 



A D 1620 ^ distasteful innovation to the Com- 



Coaches intro- pany, presumably as being calculated 



"^^ ' to interfere with the custom of riding, 



and consequently to injure their trade. On the 



1 6th July, 1620, the minutes relate that : — 



1 Coaches were almost unknown in England during the 

 middle ages. The knights were proud of their horsemanship, 

 and disdained any such means of conveyance. The few 

 " chares " in use in early times were the object of perpetual 

 ridicule. As represented in ancient manuscripts they were 

 rude, cumbrous, and inconvenient contrivances on four wheels. 

 Taylor, the Water Poet, pubUshed in 1623 a curious satire on 

 coaches under the title of " The world runnes on Wheeles, or 

 Oddes betwixt Carts and Coaches." He tells us facetiously 

 that "in the year 1564, one William Boonen, a Dutchman, 

 brought first the use of coaches hither, and the said Boonen 

 was Queene Elisabeth's coachman ; for indeede a coach was 

 a strange monster in those dayes, and the sight of them put 

 both horse and man into amazement. Some said it was a 



