1805. ] - 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THE ANTIQUARY. 
NO. IV. 
On the HISTORY of COACHES 77 MO- 
DERN EUROPE, 
ECKMANN, in the Hiftory of In- 
B ventions, has taken confiderable pains 
to prove the ufe of coaches among the 
great nations of Antiquity : but the fub- 
ject in our own country has been neglect- 
ed; or is only to be gathered from a 
variety of writers whofe accounts cannot 
eafily be reconciled together. 
Coaches, not however fuch as we now 
abound in, are mentioned as exifting in 
very early periods in all the moft culti- 
vated ef the European States, particu- 
larly England, France, Italy, and Spain. 
In the long Account of Don Ambrofe 
Travafari’s Embaffy, in 1433, we have 
this remarkable paflage relating to his re- 
ception at Mantua :—** Paffo poia Man- 
tova, ed eflendo vicino alla Citta, fe li 
fece incéntro, con nobiliffime Corteggio, 
Vittorino Feltrenfe, Cavaliere nobiliffimo, 
e verfatiffimo in ogni forta di Lettere, e 
fuo amiciffimo, infieme con i Figli del 
Principe : dai quali, iz xobil Cacchio ti- 
rato da fpiritoh Defirieri, fu condotto 
nella Citta, e in Corte ricevé i] fuo Allo- 
giamento, dove con ogni magnificenza fu 
trattato.”” 
The different paflages, however, of 
his works, in which Voltaire mentions 
their Introduction into France, are con- 
tradiftory. In one, writing on the man- 
ners and cuftoms of the thirteenth and’ 
fourteenth centuries (Hiftoire Générale, 
vol. ii. p. 169),/ he fays :——¢ Se faire 
trainer en Charette dans ies rues de Paris, 
a peine pavées, et couvertes de Fange, 
etoit une Luxe: et ce Luxe fut defendu 
par Philippe le Bel aux Bourgeoifes,”— 
But in another (vol. iii. p. 54) he tells 
us :—* I} n’y avoit fous Francois I. que 
deux Coches dans Paris, l’un pour la 
Reine, l'autre pour Diane de Poitiers. — 
Hommes et Femmes alloient 4 Chevall.”’ 
And, in a third place, {peaking of our 
Queen Elizabeth in 1559, he exprefles 
himfelf thus :—*¢ Je remarquerai qu’elle 
alla de Weftminfter 4 la Tour de Lon- 
dres dans un Char, fuivi de Cent autres. 
Ce neft pas que les Caroffes fuffent alors en 
Ufage, ce n’étoit qu’un Apareil paflager.”’ 
Saint Foix, in his Hiftorical Effays up- 
on Paris, gives a different account, He 
fays :=—"* Our Queens uled always to go 
abroad in an open chair or on horfeback, 
tyll Catharine of Medicis thought proper. 
The Antiquary. 
9 
totake the air inacoach. The firft Pre- 
fident caufed one to be made for him, be- 
caufe he was troubled with the gout ; but 
his wife came to Paris on horfeback, fit- 
ting behind one of the footmen. 
«6. Thefe coaches refembled poft-chaifes, 
with large hangings of leather, which 
were taken down that the people might get 
in, and then the curtain was put up again. 
If there had been glaffes in Henry 1V.76 
coach, pechaps he had never been murder- 
ed. Bafformpiere, in the reign of Lewis 
XIII. was the firft that projected a {mail 
coach with glaffes. During the minority 
of Lewis XIV. almoft all the people of 
fafhion vifited on‘horleback, if they were 
in health: they appeared in the apart- 
ments of the ladies, in affemblies, and fat . 
at table, in their boots, without even tak- 
ing off their fpurs. There were only 310, 
or, af mot, 320 caaches in Paris in the 
year 16583 and now (1766) tli¢ir num- 
ber exceeds 14,000.” 
Mr. Wraxall (Hiftory of France, vol. 
iil. p. 491) adds the following particu. 
lars of equal intereft. ** The art of fut. 
pending coaches in ficha manner as to 
render their motion eitfy, was unknown. 
In the relation left us by the Abbé de 
Pont Levoy, of his father the Chancellor 
Chiverney’s death, which was produced 
by a rupture, he exprefsly attributes it to 
the violent jolts of the coach. © Jnftead 
({ays he) of fparing his old age by a good 
Jitter, as every one advifed him, he had 
fome time before caufed to be made @ 
large hand{ome coach, after the mode of 
the time, Jined with crimfon velvet, mag- 
nificently gilt’—( Mémoires dé Chiverney, 
yol. ii. p. 104, 105), If we with to 
form an accurate idea of the decora- 
tions of carriages in that age, we may 
do it by perufing the account which Cayet 
gives of the coach prefented by the King 
to Mary of Medicis, on her firft arrival in 
1600. © It was covered with brown vel- 
vet and filver tinfel on the outfide; with- 
in it was lined with acarnation Velvet, 
embroidered with gold and filver. The 
curtains were of carnation damafk ; and 
it was drawn by four grey horfes.” Not- 
withftanding the external fplendour of 
their appearance, they wanted every eflen- 
tial convenience. Glafles were not in ufe 
before the fucceeding reign. In 1594, 
when Catherine, Princefs of Navarre, made 
her firft entry into Paris, fhe had eight 
carriages in her train.” 
' In another work, printed: with M. de 
St. Palaye’s Mémoires fur  Ancienne Che- 
valerie, ve find coaches or chariots-repre- 
i lad tented 
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