398 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



It must be remembered that, in making the bodies 

 of carriages, no very great skill is required, unless 

 they be of a curved form, which necessitates the 

 bending of panels and more delicate workmanship, in 

 which case you enter upon the higher branches of the 

 coach-building trade. But where the bodies are square, 

 and there is no curved or bent surface, the workman- 

 ship is in no way superior to first-rate joiner's work ; 

 but it is these curved surfaces that give to a carriage 

 the artistic and graceful shape in which the best of our 

 coach-builders so excel. 



In order to avoid the carriage-tax on four-wheel 

 carriages, some few years ago, in place of the old 

 four-wheel pony-chaise and other vehicles of a 

 similar nature, a number of small carts were 

 introduced, having varnished bodies ; these ranged 

 in size from the small village cart to be drawn by a 

 pony to the dog-cart suitable for a full-sized horse, 

 and the introduction of these carriages created quite 

 a revolution in the lower branches of coach-building. 

 Yearly the demand for this class of vehicle has 

 increased, and in the streets of every country town 

 throughout England, and along the many country 

 roads diverging from them, may be seen numbers of 

 vehicles of this description ; they are known by all 

 manner of names, such as the rustic cart, the village 

 cart, the Battlesden car, the Norwich pony-cart, and 

 numberless other names which signify a desire on the 

 part of the builders to provide a carriage of the 

 simplest and most humble description, yet having 

 style and smartness. Many of them are mere boxes 

 on wheels, and, being so, naturally do not require any 

 high-class workmanship to be expended upon them. 

 The dash is not covered with patent-leather, but is of 



