COACH LEGISLATION 205 



waggon with wheels not constructed according 

 to law, or drawn hy more horses than authorised, 

 coukl he imprisoned, and j^owers Av^ere given to 

 any person to apprehend any driver in such cases. 

 If a driver, on coming to a toll-gate, unharnessed 

 any horses or unloaded any part of his load with 

 intent to deceive or defraud the turnpike authori- 

 ties, he forfeited £5 ; while the owner paid the 

 same sum in cases where waggons were loaded 

 to excess, and the driver hecame liahle to he 

 committed for one month to a house of correction. 



Among the clauses of this and other Acts it 

 is especially forbidden to waggoners to sit in, or 

 drive from, their waggons. They must either 

 walk or ride beside them. They had, indeed, 

 generally done so, as the portrait of old Hobson, 

 on horseback, shows us, or the pictures and narra- 

 tives of old road life by contemporary artists and 

 writers sufficiently j)rove ; but as the Acts espe- 

 cially decree that waggoners were not to ride on 

 the waggons, the reason being that from such a 

 position they could not maintain sufficient control 

 over their horses, some of them must have done 

 so, and perhaps have fallen asleep and so caused 

 accidents, just as the slumbering carters and 

 waggoners on their way to and from Covent 

 Garden Market do now. 



It now became the turn of the coaches to 

 attract the attention of legislators. They obtained 

 this doubtful favour because it had just occurred 

 to the Revenue officials that, owing to the increased 

 number of coaches running, and the larger number 



