CHAP. n. KAIILV MODKS or CONVEYANCE. 165 



Distinguished personages sometimes rode in horse- 

 I in ITS, hi it ridinir on horseback was generally preferred. 

 ( v )urcn Elizabeth made most of her journeys in this way, 1 

 and \\IK-II slu> went into the City she rode on a pillion be- 

 liind her Lord Chancellor. The Queen, however, was at 

 k'n ( irth provided with a coach, which must have been a 

 very remarkable machine. This royal vehicle is said to 

 have been one of the first coaches used in England, and 

 it was introduced by the Queen's own coachman, one 

 I>oonien, a Dutchman. 2 It was little better than a cart 

 without springs, the body resting solid upon the axles. 

 Taking the bad roads and ill-paved streets into ac- 

 count, it must have been an excessively painful mode 

 of conveyance. Indeed, at one of the first audiences 

 which the Queen gave to the French ambassador in 

 1 f>()8, she recounted to him the nature of the jolting she 

 ha<l received in it a few days before, and described "la 

 douleur qu'elle sentoit a son couste, pour s'y estre heur- 

 tnV quelques jours auparavant, en ung coche ou elle 

 alia it ung peu trop viste." 3 



Such coaches were in the first place used only for 

 state processions. The roads, even in the neighbourhood 

 of London, were so bad and so narrow that the vehicles 

 could not well be taken into the country. But as the 

 fashion of using them spread, the aristocracy removed 

 to the western parts of the metropolis, where they 

 could 1)0 used, and in course of time they even ex- 

 tended into the country. They were still, however, 

 IK- it her more nor less than waggons, and, indeed, were 

 by that name; but wherever they went they 



1 Part of the riding road alonj; royal road. It is now very 

 whieh the < ( >ueeii was accustomed to priately termed " Muddy Lane. 



.n horseback l>rt\vecu her palaces '- For inucli curious information on 



this subject see a paper by J. H. 

 Mark land, F.R.S., entitled " Remarks 

 ou the Early Use of ( 'arria-es," in 

 ' vi !. \x. (London, 1824), 



at Greenwich and Kltham is still in 

 existence, a little to the south of Mor- 

 den College, IMackheath. It winds 

 irregularly throu-h the tiel.ls, broad in 



, 



places and narrow in others. 

 Probably it is very little different 



PP 



. 443-76. 



3 ' Depeehesde La Mothe Fenelou,' 



from what it was when used as a S\o., 1S.'5S. Vol. i., ]>. '_'7 



