CARRIAGES. 39 



so save the fall, or if the rowel ran instead of sticking by 

 reason of hard ground, the fall would at least be broken. 

 These swinging rods were of course a great eyesore, and it is 

 by no means certain that, if the horse had fallen in a two- 

 wheeled vehicle, Mr. Tellier's invention would have been any 

 good. 



Writing in 1794, Mr. W. Felton, the author of 'A Treatise 

 on Carriages and Harness,' declares that 'the art of coach 

 making within the last half-century has arrived to a very high 

 degree of perfection, with respect both to the beauty, strength, 

 and elegance of the machine.' Compared with the works of 

 to-day it will be seen that Mr. Felton and his readers, if they 

 agreed with him, were somewhat easily satisfied, though it 

 must be admitted that a vast improvement had been made, 

 and the town or travelling coach of the last year of the eigh- 

 teenth century was a very decent vehicle. By this time the S 

 or ' whip ' spring, from which in due course the C spring was 

 developed, had come into comparatively general use, at least 

 for the best class of carriage. Probably the coaches rocked 

 a good deal unless the roads were exceptionally good ; still, 

 regarded by the light of the past, it must be admitted that 

 Mr. Felton was justified. The author's enthusiasm for the 

 landau, which had recently come into vogue, was not without 

 warrant. It was in fact an open coach, ' an open and close 

 carriage in one,' as Mr. Felton puts it. From the landau 

 to the landaulet was a natural step. Some persons did not 

 want seats for four, and the landaulet did away with the two 

 front seats. There was indeed much variety in the carriages 

 of the period. The coach was a landau with an immovable 

 top ; as a rule it was richly decorated, though this does not 

 affect the structure of the carriage. Into technical points it is 

 not our purpose here to go, and we need only passingly mention 

 the somewhat elaborate arrangement of springs, all of course 

 tending to ease the motion, which was found in the coaches 

 of about 1796. The sulky, again, was a contracted gig made 

 to carry one only, hence its name. 



