Ce TE a a ee ee, ee eee ae ee eee 
‘ 
580 
fented as in ufe at the Duke of Burgun- 
éy’s Court foeazly as 1445. Ia the chap- 
ter which is fiyled ‘‘ L’Honneur que Ja 
Royne (Mary d’Anjou) ffi a Madame la 
Duchefle. Tfabelle quand eile fuit a Cha- 
Jons en. Champagne deveis elle,” it is faid, 
‘© Madame ja Duchefle accompaignee de 
Monfeur de Bourbon fon beau Nepveu et 
de plufieurs Princes de France vint elle et 
teute fa Compaignée a Haguences et ex 
Chariots tous dedans la Cour de Hotel 
ou le Roy (Charles VII.) \et la Royne 
eftoient, et la delcendit Madame la Du- 
chefle,’?. &es : 
The reader will probably think that by 
this time enough has been quoted relating 
to the hiflory of coaches in France ; but 
there) are yet two writers from whofe 
works fome curious information may be 
gathered. Mayans and Sifcar, who 
wrote the Life of Cervantes. prefixed to 
Jervis’s edition of Don Quixote, in criti- 
cifing the anachronifins of the author, has 
made fome valuable obfervations, and 
accounted for their. introduétion. both in 
Spain and France. ‘** How then comes 
Cervantes (he fays) to talk of coaches be- 
ing in ufe in, Don Quixoie’s time, fince 
we are told by Gonzalo Fernandes, de 
Oviedo, in the fecond part of the * Of- 
ficers of the Royal Houfehold,”’ that the 
-Princefs Margaret, when fhe came to be 
efpoufed to the Prince Don John, brought 
$n.the ule of chariots or coaches with four 
swheels ; and when fhe returned again to 
Flanders a widow, fuch fort of carriages: 
ceafed, and litters came again into play.— 
And even in France itfelf, from whence 
wehad this fathion, as .almoft all others, 
_the ufe of coaches is of no ancient date, 
for John ce Laval Bois, Dauphin of the 
~ Houle of Montmorency, was the firft per- 
fon, who, towards the clofe of Francis I.’s 
reign, made ufe of a coach, becaufe of his 
“corpulency, which was fo exceflive he could 
no! pide on horleback. In the reign of 
Henry If. there. were in the Court_ of 
France but two coaches in all; one for 
the Queen his confort, and another for his 
‘natural daughter the lady Diana. -In the 
city of Paris, Chrifopher de Thou, being 
nominated fir Prefident, was the firft that 
had a coach, but he never went in it to 
the royal palace. “Fhefe examples, which 
either grasdeuror neceflity firk introduced, 
were foon fo pernicioully prevalent, that 
nothing could come up to the ee of 
them. As for Spain, Don Lorenzo Van- 
der Hamin é Leon, writing upon this 
fubjeét in the-firft book of Don John of 
_Anitria’s Life, has the following warm 
expreflions ; — * There came Charles 
s 
The Antiquarys 
[J uly ly 
Pubeft, a fervant of Charles V. King 
and Emperor, in a coach or Chariot, 
fuch as are ufed in -thofe’ provinces, a 
thing very rarely. feen in thefe kingdoms. 
Whole:cities ran out to flare at it, fo little 
known was this. fort of pleafure at that 
time ; for then they only. made ufe of 
carts drawn by oxen, and in them were. 
often feen riding the moft confiderable 
perfons even of the Court. Don John 
went ‘feveral times to vifit the Church of 
our Lady de Regla in one of thefe wains 
or carts, in company with the Duchefs of 
‘Medina. This was the pra€tice of that 
time 5 but within a few years (three {core 
and ten, or thereabouts) it was found ne- 
ceflary to’ prohibit coaches by a‘royal pro- 
-clamation ; to fuch a height was this in- 
fernal vice got, which has done fa much 
injury to Caftile.” In order'to paint forth 
this abufe,. Cervantes brings in Terefa 
Panza, wife toa poor labouring man, ex- 
prefling mighty hopes of riding ina 
‘coach, purely upon the conceit of her huf- 
band’s being Governor of the ifland of 
Barataria.?* 4‘: OTe 
. The other author ts Charles Trenée Caf. 
tel, Abbé de.St. Pierre, who, in His Az. 
wales Politiques, gives as the twentieth 
reafon for a change of manners in anaticon 
the introduétion of coaches.—-‘* Vingtt- 
ment: Les Carofles on €té inventés au 
comencement du dernier fiecleet il y cut a 
peine cent dans Paris qui n’etoient que 
pour lufage des grandes Dames: les 
Hommes ne fe fervoient gueres que dés 
Chevaux de Selle, & comme Paris en 
1658 n’etoit pas fufifament pave, et qu'il 
“n’y avoient point encore aflez de Tombe- | 
reaux pour dter les Boues, il n’etoit pref- 
que pas poffible daller autrement, qu’a 
Cheval, et méme en Bottines dans la 
“Ville. Les Bottines et Eperons dorés du- 
rérent méme encore dans lés Vifites ordi- 
Naires, et ceux qui n’avoient ni Chevaux 
ni Caroffes ne laiffoient pas de faire leurs 
Vifites en Bottines blanches.. Les Car-— 
‘rofles a vitres’ aux portiéres et audevant 
furent inventés ily a quatre vingt ans, et 
feu Monfieur le Prince de Condé en ame- 
‘na un de Bruxelles vers 1660 on il y avoit 
des Vitreés. »On a inventé depuis les 
Glaces et plufieurs Coniodités pour les 
Carofies, les’ Refforts pour ‘adeucir la 
‘Soupente, les Arcs pour tourer facile- 
ment dans les Rués etroites, les Berlinés 
entre deux Brancahtes qui font beaucoup 
‘moins verfantés.’ Ces Voitures ont fervi 
aaugmenter lé Luxe et Ia Mollefle: ot ~ 
ces Comodités ‘nouvelles ont contribué 4 
diminuer'la force et la fante par la dimt- 
‘nution d¢-]’Exercifce,' et, depuis Pauguren- 
tation 
ey 
f 
