102 CH. VI 



CHAPTER VI 



DIFFERENT FORMS OF FOUR-IN-HAND CARRIAGES 



DRAG 



As regards the different vehicles for four-horse 

 driving, the public coach and the private drag have 

 been already sufficiently described. The name drag 

 is now restricted to the private coach, but in the 

 early part of this century a public-coach was fre- 

 quently called a ' drag' and the coachman a ' drags- 

 man.' * 



Adams writes, in 1837: 'A Driving Coach is a 

 ' vehicle formerly much used by gentlemen fond of 

 ' driving and attending races.' 



MAIL-COACH 



When, in 1784, at the suggestion of Mr Palmer, 

 of Bath, mail-coaches were established in England, 

 to replace the boys on horseback and the mail- 

 carts, the stage-coach, so modified as to make it 

 more suited to higher speeds and lighter loads, 

 became essentially the mail-coach shown in Plate 

 VII. It had a heavy carriage-part, but the body 

 was comparatively light and somewhat narrower 



* Cross, vol. ii. p. 136. 'Nimrod's' Northern Tour, p. 32. 



