8 THE COACHING ERA 



whereon stood a lyon and a dragon, supporters of the 

 arms of England."^ 



The great ladies who were present on this occasion, 

 or who got their husbands to give them a detailed de- 

 scription of the Queen's wonderful conveyance, never 

 rested till they had coaches of their own, though they 

 were perfectly aware that by their presumption in daring 

 to imitate they ran the risk of incurring her Majesty's 

 displeasure, and the Elizabethan temper was a thing to 

 be reckoned with. Be in the fashion they would, cost 

 what it might, and importuned their husbands till 

 at last obtaining their wish they "rode up and down the 

 country to the admiration of all beholders." 



At first the Spartan gentlemen of the period looked 

 on all carriages with contempt, considering them only 

 fit for women and the aged, and: "In Sir Philip Sydney's 

 days, so famous for men at armes, 'twas then held a great 

 disgrace for a young gentleman to be seen riding in the 

 streets in a coach." Thomas Pennant, the antiquarian, 

 says: "The single gentlemen, then a hardy race, equipped 

 in Jack boots and trousers up to their middle, rode fast 

 through thick and thin, and guarded against the mire, 

 defying the frequent stumble and fall, arose and pursued 

 their journey with alacrity." This attitude died out in 

 the next generation, and early in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury a coach was essentially part of a fashionable man's 

 equipment. In 1619 the Duke of Buckingham, so 

 beloved at Court and abhorred of the public, desiring 

 to make a grand display, caused six horses to be har- 

 1 Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth. 



