CARRIAGES. 45 



that the carriage was easy of entrance and exit, and excep- 

 tionally safe, as the title 'Hansom's Patent Safety Cab' implies. 

 Since Mr. Hansom designed his cab various improvements 

 have been made in nearly every particular. The expertness 

 of a really first-class driver, who seems, at least so the timid 

 passenger sometimes thinks, to squeeze his way through gaps 

 only about half wide enough to admit his passage, is some- 

 times wonderful to behold. 1 The latest development of the 

 hansom comes near to such perfection as a carriage of this 

 kind can reach. In the earlier hansoms the ease of entrance 

 and exit was only comparative, in later examples not only has 

 this been modified, but the two other drawbacks, the windows 

 in the first place, and the difficulty of communication with 

 the driver, have been obviated. The window was under the 

 control of the driver ; when let down the breathing space 

 was unpleasantly limited, and the driver could only be spoken 

 to by opening a somewhat awkwardly placed little trap in 

 the roof, though he might be directed by means of a stick 

 or umbrella poked out in front. Of late years the first diffi- 

 culty has been solved by making a circular window which the 

 passenger can raise or lower, and when down it greatly increases 

 the breathing space. The driver can also be guided by means 

 of two little contrivances like fixed bell-pulls, so devised that 

 when the right or left is pulled, as the case may be, a metal 

 hand springs out upon the top of the cab pointing either right 

 or left, and it is understood that pulling both together is an 

 order to stop. A speaking-tube is also sometimes fixed, and 

 hansoms run easily if well horsed and hung. The proper 

 running of a ' hansom ' depends much on the horse's harness 

 and manner of harnessing. The horse should be a short, 



1 The hansom is, however, the easiest carriage to drive through a crowd or 

 narrow space, always excepting four horses in a coach, and for much the same 

 reason. The driver of the hansom, from where he sits, sees the box and cap of 

 each of his wheels, and is behind them, and therefore sees if there is room or 

 not. In driving a carriage or coach with four horses, where your bars can go 

 your coach can go, for they are one inch wider from end to end than the two 

 caps or boxes of your wheels are from one outside line to the other. B. 



