POSTING IN FRANCE. 325 



into which one could, by letting down the front of it, put 

 one's legs, the front fixing under the seat made a good bed. 

 A rolled-up mattress was carried in the boot, and this joined 

 the cushions the travellers sat on. Imperials, bonnet-boxes, 

 cap-boxes, and wells under the seat held the luggage. On the 

 dickey behind was a cabriolet head to keep the servants warm 

 and dry ; and then a fourgon that held two in front, also with 

 a cab head to it, the body resembling a deer-cart, behind the 

 head, and with four horses to draw it, kept up with the 

 travelling carriage, and carried a vast amount of luggage inside 

 it. When a gentleman and his wife went on the continent for 

 some months and proposed visiting some of the capitals of 

 Europe, it was necessary for the lady to have court and other 

 smart dresses, and for the gentleman to have uniforms, hunting 

 and shooting costumes, besides his ordinary clothes, and these 

 it would have been impossible to carry without the help of 

 i& fourgon. . The writer when young travelled many hundreds 

 of miles in a fourgon with a hard cabriolet front, an apron, 

 and curtains that fastened together in the cab-head, and 

 very dry, warm and comfortable it was in wet, and cool in hot, 

 weather. 



In Germany the posting was slower than in France. In 

 some parts of both countries a most peculiar and unfair custom 

 prevailed. If the road was hilly a cheval de renfort was insisted 

 on ; that is, supposing anyone were travelling with a pair, he 

 had to pay for three horses over that stage, or if travelling with 

 three arbakt, had to take four ; this was all very well, but very 

 often they either had not, or pretended they had not, the third 

 or the fourth horse at home, yet all the same the traveller had 

 to pay for the cheval de renfort. In Italy in many parts the 

 travelling was excellent by post ; always two boys to four horses, 

 and they drove really fast and well. In Germany one seldom 

 had more than one boy to four horses, and usually one string to 

 the near-side leader, for reins, and nothing to the off-side 

 leader. They drove by word of mouth and waving of their 

 long whips ; but if the waving was not attended to, they could 



