EARLY COACHES 13 



and Taylor made the most of it, saying "the word en- 

 croach, I think, that best befits it, for I think there never 

 was such an impudent, proud, saucie intruder came into 

 the world as a coach is." 



He then went on to impute every imaginable evil to 

 the pernicious influence of the coach, "for it had driven 

 many honest families out of their houses, many knights to 

 beggars, corporations to poverty, almsdeeds to mis- 

 deedes, hospitality to extortion, plenty to famine, 

 humility to pride, compassion to oppression, and all 

 earthly goodness almost to utter confusion." 



Taylor was of the opinion that anything on wheels 

 was put to an improper use when carrying live things; 

 he grudgingly admitted that they might be useful for 

 conveying stone, timber, corn, wine and other merchan- 

 dise, for "they are dead and cannot go on foot, so must 

 be carried." For any person possessing a full comple- 

 ment of legs, to travel in a coach was a disgrace un- 

 speakable, and Taylor's eyes, in consequence, must have 

 been offended a hundred times a day, for in spite of 

 all he could say the popularity of coaches increased. 



Coachmen, too, came in for a large measure of his 

 hatred and he contrasted them unfavourably with 

 carmen, in so much that they had the awful presumption 

 to ride, whilst the carmen walked on foot, and, according 

 to Taylor, if his horses were afflicted with a fit of melan- 

 choly — which, considering the state of the roads and 

 constru6lion of the waggons, cannot have been very 

 infrequent — he would "whistle him into a fit of mirth." 



In the provinces, travelling was still primitive, and the 



