10 THE COACHING ERA 



Pepys, in his diary, recounts how he saw the King's 

 coach overturned: 



"To Whitehall, from whence the King and the Duke 

 of York went by three in the morning, and had the 

 misfortune to be overset with the Duke of York, and 

 the Prince (Rupert) at the Kingsgate in Holborne, and 

 the King all dirty, but no hurt. How it came to pass 

 I know not, but only it was dark, and the torches did 

 not, they say, light the coaches as they should." 



In 1634 Captain Butler, a retired mariner of a specu- 

 lative turn of mind, built four hackney-coaches which 

 he stationed for public hire at the Maypole in the 

 Strand. This venture met with instant success, and 

 Captain Bailey's liveried drivers were in great request 

 so that other drivers, quick to follow, took up their 

 station at the coach rank or drove slowly about in search 

 of fares. 



These first hackney-coaches were imitations of the 

 private coaches of the period, and the coachman's 

 position was most unenviable, for, as the idea of a coach- 

 box had not yet occurred, the driver was accommodated 

 on a bar placed very low behind the horses. "The 

 coachman rides behind the horses' tails, lasheth them, 

 and looketh not behind him," wrote Stow, who was of 

 the opinion that no carts shod with iron should be al- 

 lowed within the city "unless for the service of princes"; 

 even then the foremost horse should be led by hand to 

 minimize danger. 



This sudden influx of public vehicles was not regarded 

 at all favourably at Court, which very justly considered 



