CARRIAGES. 49 



the Victoria with a seat for the coachman, the vehicle which is 

 at present as popular among open carriages as the brougham is 

 among closed. 



The latest development of the barouche, a carriage with a 

 movable hood, a seat, suspended on C springs, and a driver's 

 seat much like that of a landau, need not be described. Nor is 

 it necessary to say much about the sociable landau, the square 

 head of which can be lowered so as to make it an open 

 carriage, or raised and fastened by catches at the point of 

 juncture, so making a carriage much resembling the coach of 

 former days, but far lighter ; for after the vast improvement made 

 in the roads by the adoption of McAdam's system vehicles were 

 improved correspondingly. Adams considered the barouche 

 a very different affair, as will readily be understood, from the 

 carriage of the same name in use nearly a century before the 

 principal of all open carriages, and an equal authority declares 

 the landau to be the handsomest of all C spring carriages, and 

 the beau-ideal of vehicular luxury. The barouche is certainly 

 the more finished and handsome of the two, for the top of the 

 landau, when the carriage is open, lies back in somewhat clumsy 

 fashion ; but then the comfort of the closed carriage is often 

 great. Happily we have not to decide which of the two the 

 man in search of the best obtainable carriage would do best 

 to buy. 



The coach is regarded by many as par excellence the first 

 of English vehicles. The measurements of an ordinary road 

 coach, although they differ considerably from those of some of 

 the coaches seen about the parks, &c., nowadays, are no doubt 

 best adapted for speed, strength, and safety combined. The 

 following figures are taken from one of the best running road 

 coaches, made by most scientific builders, but they need not, 

 therefore, be put down as figures to be invariably adopted ; 

 they constitute rather a fair average guide. The length of the 

 pole may be put as 10 ft. 8 in., and strange to say the entire 

 length of the coach comes to within an inch of the same, viz. 



E 



