290 



THE HORSE IN SERVICE 



Very light wheels may have the spokes set in the hub in 

 staggered fashion (Fig. 160) in order to brace the wheel against 

 being sprung by a side thrust from either direction. Instead of 

 being lined up in tlie hub evei*y other spoke is set 

 outside the centre of the hub, which is directly 

 in line with the felloe, the other spokes being 

 set inside. Thus each alternate half of the 

 spokes braces the wheel in opposite directions. 

 Wheeled passenger vehicles were first intro- 

 duced into England in 1555, according to Sir 

 Walter Gilbey, and were in limited use in 

 France a little before that time. Queen Elizabeth 

 was the first sovereign to use a coach, it having 

 been brought from the ^Netherlands and pre- 

 sented to her by a Dutchman, William Boonen, 

 who later became her coachman. This was one' 

 of the first carriages seen in England and was of most cumber- 

 some but pretentious design (Fig. 161). 



Progress in carriage building was as rapid as the gradual im- 



FiG. 160.— The 

 staggered arrange- 

 ment of the spokes 

 in the hub. 



Fig. 161. — One of the cumbersome and pretentious early coaches. 



provement of the roads would permit, and they remained in very 

 bad condition until late in the eighteenth century. 



Steel springs were first used in 1670, although our buckboard 

 idea had been represented at a much earlier time, in the way of 



