INTRODUCTION. \f 



Froissart describes Isabel, the second wife of Richard 

 the Second of England, as having been borne " en une 

 liti^re moult riche, qvii etoit ordonnbe pom* elle ;" and 

 tliis kind of veliicle, during the reigns of several suc- 

 ceeding Monarchs, appears to have been used by wo- 

 men of distinction in this country, but, only, it is to be 

 observed, in cases of illness, or on occasions of cere- 

 mony. For example, — when Margaret, daughter of 

 Henry the Seventh, went into Scotland, she generally 

 rode "a faire palfrey;" while, after her, was conveyed 

 " one vary riche litere, borne by two faire coursers, vary 

 nobly drest ; in the which litere the sayd Queene was 

 borne in the intrying of the good townes, or otherwise, 

 to her good playsher," 



Towards the end of the thirteenth century, vehicles 

 with wheels, for the use of ladies, were first introduced. 

 They appear to have been of Italian origin, as the first 

 notice of them is found in an account of the entry of 

 Charles of Anjou into Naples; on which occasion, Ave 

 are told, his queen rode in a careta, the outside and 

 inside of which were covered with sky-blue velvet, 

 interspersed with golden lilies. Under the Gallicised 

 denomination of char, the Italian careta, shortly after- 

 wards became known in France ; where, so early as the 

 year 1294, an ordinance was issued by Philip the Fair, 

 forbidding its use to citizens' wives. Nor was Eng- 

 land far behind in the adoption of the vehicle ; for, in 

 "The Squyr of Low Degree," a poem supposed to 



