40 
was cancelled and a duty of 5s. per head 
imposed on every horse sent over sea. 
As proving the wide interest now taken 
in racing, the publication in 1680 of a 
curious little book called The Compleat 
Gamester, may be mentioned. This gives 
very full and minute instructions for the 
preparation and training of racehorses. 
Stage coaches and waggons increased in 
number during Charles II.’s reign. There 
is among the Harlezan Miscellany (vol. viii.) 
a tract dated 1673, in which the writer 
adduces several reasons for the suppression 
of coaches, “especially those within 40, 50, 
or 60 miles off London.” His first reason 
for objecting to the coach is that it works 
harm to the nation “ by destroying the breed 
of good horses, the strength of the nation, 
and making men careless of attaining to 
good horsemanship, a thing so useful and 
commendable in a gentleman.” Charles 
apparently did not share this opinion; at 
all events, he gave countenance to the 
coach-building industry by founding, in 1677, 
the Company of Coach and Coach Harness 
Makers.* 
* History of the Art of Coach Building. By Geo. A. 
Thrupp, London, 1876. 
