C O J 
of which belonged to the queen, another to Diana de 
Poifitiers, the mlitrefs of two kings, Francis I. and Henry 
II, by the latter'of whom {he was-created'duchefs of Va- 
Jefitinois, and the third to Rene de Laval lord of Bois- 
dauphin, The laft was a corpulent unwieldy nobleman, 
who was not able to ride on horfeback. Others fay, that 
the three firft coaches belonged to Catharine de Me- 
dicis ; Diana duchefs. of Angouleme, the natural daugh¬ 
ter of Henry II. who died in 1619 in the eightieth year 
of her age ; and Chriltopher de Thou, firft prefident of 
the parliament. The laft was excufed by the.gout \ but 
the reft of the minifters of ftate foon followed his exam¬ 
ple. Henry IV. was aflaffinated in a coach ; but he 
ufually rode through the ftreets of Paris on horfeback, 
and, to provide againlt rain, carried a large cloak behind 
hirn. For himfelf and his queen he had only one coach ; 
as appears by a-letter ftill preierved, in which he writes to 
a friend, “ I cannot wait upon you to-day, becaufe my 
wife is ufing my coach.” We however, find two coaches 
at the public folemmty on the arrival of the Spanith am- 
baflador, Don Peter de Toledo, under Henry IV. This 
contradiction is a circumftance which is not worth farther 
refearch ; but it fliews that all writers do not fpeak of 
the fame kind of carriages or coaches, and that every im¬ 
provement has formed as it were an epoch in the hiftory 
of them. Thefe coaches were not fufpended by ltraps, 
but they had a canopy fupported by ornamented pillars, 
and the whole body was furrounded by curtains ot ltuff 
or leather, which could be drawn up. The coach in 
which Louis XIV. made his public entrance, about the 
middle of the feventeehth century, appears to have been 
a fufpended carriage, hung on ltraps. 
The oldeft carriages ufed by the ladies in England 
were known under the now-forgotten name of •whirlicotcs. 
When Richard II. towards tinf end of the fourteenth 
century, was obliged to fly before his rebellious fubjebts, 
be and all his followers were on horfeback; his mother 
only, who was indifpofed, rode in a carriage. This how¬ 
ever became afterwards fomewhat unfalhionable, when 
the monarch’s queen, Anne the daughter of the emperor 
Charles IV. fhewed the Englilh ladies how gracefully and 
conveniently Ihe could ride on a fide-faddle. Whirlicotes 
were laid afide, therefore, except at coronations and other 
public folemnities. Coaches were firft known in Eng¬ 
land about 1580; and, as Stowe fays, were introduced 
from Germany by Fitz-allen earl of Arundel. In 1598, 
when the Englilh ambaflador went to Scotland, he had 
a coach with him. Anderfon places the period when 
coaches began to be ill common ule about the year 1605. 
The celebrated duke of Buckingham, the unworthy fa¬ 
vourite of two kings, was the firft perfon who rode with 
a coach and fix horles, in 1619 : to ridicule this new pomp, 
the earl of Northumberland put eight horfes to his car¬ 
riage. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, when 
Charles of Anjou made his entrance into Naples, the queen 
rode in a carriage called by liiftorians caretta, the outlide 
and infide of which were covered with Iky-blue velvet, in- 
terfperfed with golden lilies, a magnificence never before 
Feen by the Neapolitans. At the entrance of Frederic II. 
into Padua, in 1139, it appears there were no carriages, 
for the molt elegantly drelfed ladies that came to meet 
him were on palfreys ornamented with trappings. It 
is well knowm that the luxury of carriages lpread from 
Naples all over Italy. Coaches were feen for the firft time 
in Spain in 1546 ; at leaft fuch is the account of Twifs, 
who, according to his ufual cuftom, lays fo without giv¬ 
ing his authority. 
Towards the end of the fixteenth century, John of Fin¬ 
land, on his return from England, among other articles 
of luxury, carried with him to Sweden the firft coach that 
ever had been feen there : before that period, the greateft 
lords in Sweden, when they travelled by land, carried 
their wives with them on horfeback ; the princefies even 
travelled in that manner, and when it rained took with 
them a mantle of waxed cloth. It appears that there 
Voj.< IV. No. 231. 
C FI. <701 
were elegant coaches in the capita] of Ruflla fo early as 
the beginning of the feventeenth century. 
But to what nation are we to afcribe the invention 
of coaches ? if under this name we comprehend co¬ 
vered carriages, thefe are fo old as not to admit of any 
difpute reflecting the queftion. To the following, how¬ 
ever, cne might expeft.an anivver: who firft fell on the 
idea of Impending the body of the carriage on elaftic 
fprings, by which the whole machine lias undoubtedly 
been much improved ? but to this queftion we can find 
no anfwer, except the information before mentioned, that 
fufpended carriages were known in the time of Louis XIV. 
As the name coach is now adopted, with a little varia¬ 
tion, in all the European languages, fome have thought 
to determine the country of this invention from the ety¬ 
mology of the word. It is difficult, however, to deter¬ 
mine pofitively whence it is derived, as we do not knout 
by whom theie dole carriages were invented. Menage 
makes it Latin, by a far-fetched derivation from <ve- 
biculum ; Junius derives it fomewhat fhorter fromo 
to carry, Wachter thinks it comes from the German 
word kutten, to cover; and Lye, from the Belgic koetfen , 
to lie along, as it properly fignifies a couch or chair. But, 
even allowing that one could fix the origin of the word, 
it would by no means be afcertained what kind of a car¬ 
riage we ought properly to underftand by it. Mr. Cor¬ 
nicles has lately endeavoured to prove, that the word coach 
is of Hungarian extraction, and that it had its rile from a 
village in the province of Wiefelburg, which at prelent 
is called Kit fee, but was known formerly by the name of 
Kotfee, and that this travelling machine was there firft in¬ 
vented. However this be, the grounds on which he fup- 
ports his afiertion deferve notice, as they feem at leaft to 
prove that in the fixteenth century, or even earlier, a 
kind of covered carriages were known under the name of 
Hungarian carriages. As the word gutfehi, and not gutf- 
che, was ufed at firft in Germany, the laft fyllabie gives us 
reafon to conjecture, that it is rather of Hungarian than 
German extraction. As Hortleder tells us that Charles V. 
becaufe he had the gout, laid himfelf to fteep in an Hun¬ 
garian gutfehe, one might almoft conclude, that the pecu¬ 
liarity of thefe carriages conlifted in their being fo con- 
ItruCted as to admit people to fleep in them. This con¬ 
jecture is fupported by the meaning of the word gutfehe, 
which formerly fignified a couch or lofa. As the writers 
quoted by Mr. Confides call the Hungarian coaches fome- 
times leaves, light, fo.metimes veloces, fwift, one ought ra¬ 
ther to confider them as a particular kind of carriages for 
travelling with expedition. It is, however, ftill more wor¬ 
thy of remark, that, fo early as the year 1457, the am- 
balfador of Ladiflaus V. king of Hungary and Bohemia, 
brought with him to the queen of France, b^fides other 
prefents, a carriage which excited great wonder at Paris, 
and which, as an old hiftorian fays, was branlant et moult 
riche. Does not the firft word of this exprelfion feem to 
indicate that the carriage was fufpended ? 
A peculiar kind of coach has been introduced in latter 
times under the name of berlin. The name indicates the 
place which gave birth to the invention, as the French 
themfelves acknowledge; though fome, with very little 
probability, with to derive it from the Italian. Philip de 
Chiefe, a native of Piedmont, and deicended from the 
Italian family of Chiefa, was a colonel and quarter-maf- 
ter-general in the fervice of Frederic William, elector of 
Brandenburg, by whom he was much efteemed on ac¬ 
count of his knowledge in architecture. Being once fent 
to France on his maker’s buiinefs, he caufed' to be built, 
on purpofe for this journey, a carriage capable of con¬ 
taining two perfons; which in France, and every where 
elfe, was much approved, and called a betline. This 
Philip de Chiefe died at Berlin in 1673. This gave rife 
to the coaches let out for hire, known under the name of 
f acres, or hackney-coaches. This began in France ; for, 
about the year 1650, one Nicholas Sauvage fjr.ft thought 
of keeping horfes and carriages ready to be let out to 
8 CL thofe 
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