CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 181 
and in their first form they appear to have mitigated 
but slightly the jolting of the vehicle to which they 
were applied. Pepys speaks of riding in a carriage 
thus equipped belonging to Colonel Edward Blount, 
which Pepys found “pretty well, but not so easy as 
he pretends.” 
How far from easy the seventeenth century car- 
riages must have been is shown by the numerous 
crude inventions that were made from time to time 
with the view of improving them. Evelyn, for exam- 
ple, in the year 1665, records the following in his 
Diary : — 
“Sir Richard Bulkeley described to us a model of 
a chariot which he had contrived, which it was not 
possible to overthrow in whatever uneven way it was 
drawn, giving us a wonderful relation of what it had 
performed in that kind, for ease, expedition, and 
safety; there were some inconveniences yet to be 
remedied: it would not contain more than one per- 
son, was ready to take fire every ten miles, and, being 
placed and playing on no fewer than ten rollers, it 
made a most prodigious noise, almost intolerable. A 
remedy was to be sought for these inconveniences.” 
If this astonishing vehicle was really considered 
wonderful for “ease and expedition,’—and Mr. 
Evelyn was not given to irony, ——it may be imagined 
what were the qualities of the ordinary chariot, upon 
which it was supposed to be an improvement. 
But whatever the ancient carriage lacked in com- 
fort, it made up in splendor. It was richly deco- 
rated, painted in gay colors, emblazoned with pictures, 
and fitted with hangings and cushions of silk and 
velvet. 
