THE INTRODUCTION OF CARRIAGES 9 



horses to his carriage, he thought that he might 

 very well have eight, " and so rode," we are told, 

 "from London to Bath, to the vulgar talk and 

 admiration." 



The first public carriages, according to a state- 

 ment made to Taylor, the "water poet," hy Old 

 Parr, the centenarian, were the "hackney-coaches," 

 established in London in 1605. " Since then," 

 says Taylor, writing on the subject at different 

 times betAveen 1623 and 1635, " coaches have 

 increased with a mischief, and have ruined the 

 trade of the watermen by hackney-coaches, and 

 now multiply more than ever." The "watermen" 

 were, of course, those who plied with their boats 

 and barges for hire upon the Thames, chiefly 

 between London and Westminster, the river being 

 then, and for long after, the principal highway for 

 traffic in the metropolis. So greatly, indeed, was 

 the river traffic for the time affected, that the 

 sprack-witted Taylor relinquished his trade of 

 waterman and embarked upon the more promising 

 career of pamphleteering. 



" Thirty years ago," he says, in one of these out- 

 bursts, " The World runnes on Wheeles," " coaches 

 were few " : — 



Then upstart helcart coaches were to seeke, 

 A man could scarce see twenty in a weeke, 

 But now I thinke a man may daily see 

 More than the whirries on the Thames can be. 

 Carroches, coaches, jades and Flanders mares 

 Doe rob us of our shares, our wares, our fares; 

 Against the ground we stand and knock our heeles, 

 Whilest all our profit runs away on wheeles. 



