CHAPTER VII 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY : 1800 — 182J^ 



The period at wliicli this chajiter begins is that 

 when outside passengers were first enabled to ride 

 on the roofs of coaches without incurring the 

 imminent hazard of being thrown off Avhenever 

 their vigilance and their anxious griji were relaxed. 

 It was about 1800 that fore and hind boots, 

 framed to the body of the coach, became general, 

 thus affording foothold to the outsides. Mail- 

 coaches were not the cause of this change, for 

 they originally carried no passengers on the roof. 



We cannot fix the exact date of this improve- 

 ment, and may suj^j^ose that, in common with 

 every other innovation,, it was gradual, and only 

 introduced when new coaches became necessary on 

 the various routes. The immediate result was to 

 democratise coach-travelling. Exclusive insides, 

 who once with disgust observed the occasional 

 soldier or sailor dangling his legs in the Avindows, 

 now Avere obliged to put lij) with a set of clieaj^ 

 travellers avIio, if they did no longer so dangle 

 their common legs, being provided with seats and 

 footholds, were always to be found on the roof, 

 laughing and talking loudly, enjoying themselves 

 in the elementary and vociferous way only 



