J 2 ROOF-SEATS CH. IV 



' had taken up two soldiers on the road, and from 

 ' good feeling, as I thought, had, not long before we 

 ' stopped, put them into the hind boot and covered 

 ' them up — the boots in those days being very capa- 

 ' cious and opening at the top.' This happened in 

 January 1814. The guard's object was, of course, 

 to prevent the proprietor from knowing that he 

 had carried the soldiers free, or else had pocketed 

 their fares. 



Again in Cross (vol. ii.'p. 81), we find as follows, 

 where an old coachman is speaking of sailors just 

 paid off, travelling by the Portsmouth coach : ' We 



* used to set 'em a-nVhting in the rumble-tumble, 



* when they'd be sure to drop something worth 

 ' picking up.' 



The whole hind boot seems to have been called the 

 rumble. The name is now applied only to the seat. 



Some of the older coachmen called it the ' dickey' 

 (Cross, vol. iii. p. 128), but that name is now applied 

 to the driving-seat of a carriage. 



Roof-Seats. — In the very old coaches (Plates V. 

 and VI., Hogarth and Rowlandson) there were 

 no seats on the roof, but passengers frequently 

 sat there, clinging on as they best could. Seats 

 were afterward added in the form that we have 

 them now, and finally, so many accidents were 

 there from top-heavy coaches, that a certain Mr 

 Gammon procured the passage of an Act of Parlia- 

 ment, in 1 788, prohibiting coaches from carrying 



