MODERN CARRIAGES. 385 



doors, and providing single steps with covers opening with the 

 doors. The body being hung lower than formerly, enables 

 persons to enter or leave the carriage more rapidly, and when 

 large numbers of carriages are assembled to take persons home 

 from operas, theatres, balls, concerts, or any other assemblies, 

 this facility is of great public advantage, as the company, instead 

 of being detained that mauvais quart d'heure in the lobbies, 

 crush-rooms, and entrances (the ladies generally in light dresses 

 and sometimes in a cold draught or cutting east wind), can be 

 more rapidly dispersed without the tiresome discomfort of 

 former times. They are made with curved and also angular 

 outlines to suit the taste of purchasers. Some have black 

 panels to the whole upper part, while most have windows in 

 the upper side panels. 



Landaus carry four persons inside, have folding heads 

 that protect all from the rain and weather, and are mostly 

 made of two patterns : some with curved lines approaching 

 that of a barouche, others with a well, and angular lines, more 

 like the carriages known as sociables. Those with curved lines 

 are known as ' Sefton ' landaus, from the present Earl of Sefton, 

 who had the first one built for his own use. Those with 

 angular lines are known as ' Shelburne ' landaus, from the late 

 Earl of Shelburne, who had the first of that pattern built. 



No other carriages have had so much care, attention, and 

 inventive talent bestowed on them as landaus, and the agree- 

 able feature in the matter is, that all the important improve- 

 ments that have been effected and permanently adopted are 

 English : they have been made in vast numbers, and have 

 been surpassingly useful in our rainy and damp climate. If 

 the coachmakers of the beginning of the century could but 

 inspect the best landaus of the present day, side by side with 

 their own productions good of their kind as they were they 

 would marvel at the improvements effected by their successors. 



Many of these landaus have been suspended on forged iron 

 perches, with under and C springs and leather braces. The 

 first attempts were heavy and cumbersome, but more elegant 



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