THE INTRODUCTION OF CARRIAGES 3 



from that being correct, mention of carriages is 

 often found in authorities of a period earlier by 

 almost two centuries. Thus, in her will of Septem- 

 ber 25th, 1355, Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady Clare, 

 bequeathed her " great carriage, with the cover- 

 tures, carjiets, and cushions," to her eldest daughter; 

 and carriasre-builders at the close of Edward III.'s 

 reign charged £100 and £1000 for their wares. 

 Carts were not unknoAvn to the peasantry ; 

 Eroissart tells us that the English returned from 

 Scotland in 1360 in " charettes," a kind of carriage 

 whose make he does not specify ; and ladies are 

 discovered in 1380 travelling with the l3aggage 

 in " Avhirlicotes," which Avere cots or beds on 

 Avheels, or a species of Avheeled litter. We have, 

 by favour of one of the old chroniclers, a fugitive 

 picture of Richard II., at the age of scA'enteen, 

 travelling in one of these Avhirlicotes, accom- 

 panying his mother, Avho Avas ill. 



Bat such instances do not prove more than 

 occasional use, and it certainly appears that Avhen 

 Queen ^lary rode from the Toaa er of London to 

 Westminster on her Coronation Day, Sej^tember 

 20th, 1553, in her State coach, she thereby revived 

 the use of carriages, Avhicli, for some reason or 

 another, had fallen into disuse since those early 

 days. Her coachmaker, by a grant made on 

 May 29tli in the first year of her reign, Avas one 

 Anthony Silver. 



We may seek the cause of A\dieeled conveyances 

 going out of use in the tAvo centuries before this 

 date in the steady and continuous decay of the 



