DAJViV OF THE COACHING AGE 67 



private carriage of the Duke of York, in 1(3G1, 

 and we do not begin to hear of glazed windows 

 in stage-coaches until the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century, Avhen " glass coaches " were 

 announced. It is, indeed, unlikely that glass 

 could in any case have been introduced for the 

 jiurjiose of country travelling at an earlier date, 

 for it Avould need to have been of extraordinary 

 strength and thickness to survive the shocks and 

 crashes of travel of this period. 



All these vehicles were low hung, for the 

 heavy body, slung by massive leather braces 

 from the uj^right posts springing from the axle- 

 trees of front and hind wheels, Avas too responsive 

 to any and every rut and irregularity of the road 

 to be placed at the height to which the coaches 

 of a century later attained. 



In the excessive jolting then incidental to 

 travelling, the body of a coach swayed laterally 

 to such an extent that it Avould often swing, in 

 the manner of a pendulum, quite clear of the 

 underworks. Occupants of coaches were thus 

 often afflicted with nausea, not unlike that of 

 sea-sickness, and to be " coached " Avas at that 

 time an exj^ression Avhich meant the getting used 

 to a violent motion at first most emphatically 

 resented by the human stomach. 



Although the body of a coach enjoyed a wide 

 range of motion sideAAays, it had not by any means 

 the same freedom back and forth. A severe strain, 

 in the continual plunging and jolting, Avas there- 

 fore throAvn upon the suj)i)orting uprights, so that 



