Having dealt with the social condition of the conductors and drivers of
the London omnibuses and cabs, I now, in due order, proceed to treat
of the number, state, and income of the men connected with the job and
glass-coaches, as well as the flies for the conveyance of persons, and
the waggons, carts, vans, drays, &c., for the conveyance of goods from
one part of the metropolis to another; also of the porters engaged in
conveyance by hand.
The metropolitan carriages engaged in the conveyance of passengers are
of two classes,--ticketed and unticketed; that is to say, those who
ply for passengers in the public streets, carry a plate inscribed
with a certain number, by which the drivers and owners of them may be
readily known. Whereas those who do not ply in public, but are let out
at certain yards or stables, have no badge affixed to them, and are,
in many cases, scarcely distinguishable from private vehicles. The
ticketed carriages include the stage and hackney-coaches, or, in modern
parlance, the ’busses and cabs of London. The unticketed carriages, on
the other hand, comprise the glass-coaches and flies that, for a small
premium, may be converted into one’s own carriage for the time being.
But besides these there is another large class of hired conveyances,
such as the job-carriages, which differ from the glass-coaches
principally in the length of time for which they are engaged. The term
of lease for the glass-coach rarely exceeds a day; while the fly is
often taken by the hour; the job-carriage, however, is more commonly
engaged by the month, and not unfrequently by the year. Hence the
latter class of conveyances may be said to partake of the attributes of
both public and private carriages. They are public, in so far as they
are let to hire for a certain term; and private, inasmuch as they are
often used by the same party, and by them only, for several years.
The tradesmen who supply carriage-horses (and occasionally carriages)
by the day, week, month, or year, to all requiring such temporary or
continuous accommodation, are termed job-masters, of whom, according to
the Post-office Directory, there are 154 located in London; 51 being
also cab proprietors, and 28 the owners of omnibuses. They boast, and
doubtlessly with perfect truth, that in their stables are the major
part of the finest carriage horses in the world. The powerful animals
which are seen to dash proudly along the streets, a pair of them
drawing a large carriage with the most manifest ease, are, in nine
cases out of ten, not the property of the nobleman whose silver crest
may adorn the glittering harness, but of the job-master. One of those
masters has now 400 horses, some of which are worth 120 guineas, and
the value is not less than 60_l._ per horse, or 24,000_l._ in all. The
premises of some of the job-masters are remarkable for their extent,
their ventilation, and their scrupulous cleanliness. All those in a
large way of business have establishments in the country as well as
in town, and at the latter are received the horses that are lame,
that require rest, or that are turned out to grass. The young horses
that are brought up from the country fairs, or have been purchased
of the country breeders (for job-masters or their agents attend at
Horncastle, Northallerton, and all the great horse-fairs in Yorkshire
and Lincolnshire), are generally conducted in the first instance to
the country establishment of the town master, which may be at Barnet
or any place of a like distance. These agents have what is called the
pick of the market, not unfrequently visiting the premises of the
country horse dealer and there completing purchases without subjecting
the farmer (for country horse-breeders and dealers are nearly all
farmers) to the trouble and expense of sending his cattle to the fair;
and it is thus that the London dealers secure the best stock in the
kingdom. Until within twenty or thirty years ago some of the wealthier
of the nobility or gentry, as I have previously intimated, would vie
with each other during the London season in the display of their most
perfect Cleveland bays, or other description of carriage-horses. The
animals were at that period walked to London under the care of the
coachman and his subordinates, the family travelling post to town. Such
a procedure is now never resorted to. Very few noblemen at present
bring their carriage-horses to town, even if within a short railway
distance; they nearly all job, as it is invariably called: that is,
they hire carriage-horses by the month at from twenty to thirty guineas
a pair, the job-master keeping the animals by sending the quantity of
provender to his customer’s premises, and they are groomed by his own
servants. “Why sir,” said a job-master to me, “everybody jobs now. A
few bishops do, and lords, and dukes, and judges. Lord D---- jobs,
and lots of parsons and physicians; yes lots, sir. The royal family
job, all but the Queen herself. The Duchess of Kent jobs. The late
Duke of C---- jobbed, and no doubt the present duke will. The Queen
Dowager jobbed regularly. It’s a cheaper and better plan for those
that must have good horses and handsome carriages. I dare say all the
gentlemen in the Albany job, for I know a many that do. By jobbing,
rich people can always secure the best horses in the world.” I may add,
that any of the masters of whom I have spoken will job a carriage duly
emblazoned (if ordered to provide one); he will job harness, too, with
the proper armorial bearings about it, and job coachmen and grooms as
well. For the use of a first-class carriage 80 guineas a year is paid.
A brougham with one horse and a driver is jobbed at 16_s._ a-day. But
these vehicles are usually supplied by jobbing coach-masters: but
the jobbing in carriages is not so common as in horses, gentlemen
preferring to have their own chariots or broughams, while the jobbing
in servants is confined principally to bachelors or gentlemen keeping
no establishments.
The job trade I am assured has increased fivefold since the general
establishment of railways. In this trade there is no “slop” supply.
Even the smaller masters supply horses worth the money; for to furnish
bad horses would be at once to lose custom. “Gentlemen are too good
judges of horse-flesh,” a small job-master said to me, “to put up with
poor cattle, even though they may wear slop coats themselves, and rig
their servants out in slop liveries. Nothing shows a gentleman more
than his horse; and they can’t get first-rate horses in the country as
they can in London, because they’re bought up for the metropolis.”
The men employed in the job-masters’ yards do not live in the yards,
except a few of the higher servants, to whom can be entrusted the care
of the premises and of the costly animals kept there. Nearly all the
men in these yards have been brought up as grooms, and must, in stable
phraseology, “know a horse well.” None of them in the better yards
receive less than 20_s._ a-week in wages; nor will any master permit
his horses to be abused in any manner. Cruelty to a horse is certain
dismissal if detected, and is now, I am glad to be informed on good
authority, very rare. I may here mention the rather amusing reply of
a rough old groom out of place to my remark that Mr. ---- would not
allow any of his horses to be in any way abused. “_Abused!_” said my
respondent, confining the meaning of the word to one signification:
“Abused! you mayn’t so much as swear at them.” Another rough-spoken
person, who was for a time a foreman to a job-master, told me that he
had never, or rarely, any difficulty in making a bargain with gentlemen
who were judges of horses; “but,” said he, “ladies who set up for
judges are dreadful hard to please, and talk dreadful nonsense. What do
they know about the points of a horse? But of all of ’em, a ---- is the
worst to please in a horse or a carriage; she is the very devil, sir.”
The people employed by the job-masters are strong, healthy-looking
men, with no lack of grey hairs--always a good sign among them. Their
amusements, I am told, are confined to an odd visit to the play, more
especially to Astley’s, and to skittle-playing. These enjoyments,
however, are rare, as the groom cannot leave his labours for a day and
then return to it as a mechanic may. Horses must be tended day and
night, Sunday and work-day, so that it is only “by leave” that they can
enjoy any recreation. Nearly all of them, however, take great interest
in horse-races, steeple-chases, and trotting-matches. Many of them
dabble in the Derby and St. Leger lotteries, and some “make a book,”
risking from two or three half-crowns to 5_l._, and sometimes more
than they can pay. These parties, however, belong as much to the class
of servants as they do to the labourers engaged in connexion with the
transit of the metropolis.
I am informed that each of the 150 job-masters resident in London may
be said to employ six or seven men in their yards or stables, some
having at least double that number in their service, and others, again,
only two or three; the latter, however, is the exception rather than
the rule. According to this estimate there must be from 900 to 1000
individuals engaged in the job business of London. Their number is made
up of stablemen, washers, ostlers, job-coachmen, and glass-coachmen
or flymen, besides a few grooms for the job cabriolets. The stableman
attends only to the horses in the stables, and gets 2_s._ 6_d._ a-day,
or 17_s._ 6_d._ a-week, standing wages. The washer has from 18_s._
to 1_l._ a week, and is employed to clean the carriages only in the
best yards, for those of a second-rate character the stableman washes
the carriages himself. The ostler attends to the yard, and seldom or
never works in the stables. He answers all the rings at the yard bell,
and takes the horses and gigs, &c. round to the door. He is, as it
were, the foreman or superintendent of the establishment. He usually
receives 1_l._ 1_s._ a-week standing wages at the best yards, while at
those of a lower character only 15_s._ is given. The job-coachman is
distinct from the glass-coachman or flyman. “He often goes away from
the yard on a job,” to use the words of my informant, “for three or six
months at a stretch.” He is paid by the job-master, and gets 30_s._
a-week standing wages. He has to drive and attend to his horses in the
stable. The glass-coachman or flyman goes out merely by the day or by
the hour. He gets 9_s._ a-week from the job-master, and whatever the
customers think proper to give him. Some persons give 6_d._ an hour to
the glass-coachman, and others 5_s._ a-day for a pair of horses, and
from 3_s._ to 3_s._ 6_d._ a-day for one horse. A glass coach, it may be
as well to observe, is a carriage and pair hired by the day, and a fly
a one-horse carriage hired in a similar manner. The job-coachman and
the glass-coachman have for the most part been gentlemen’s servants,
and have come to the yard while seeking for another situation. They
are mostly married men, having generally wedded either the housemaid,
nurse, or cook, in some family in which they have lived. “The lady’s
maid,” to quote from my informant, “is a touch above them. The cooks
are in general the coachman’s favourite, in regard of getting a little
bit of lunch out of her.”
The job-coachman’s is usually a much better berth than that of the
glass-coachman or flyman. The gentlefolks who engage the glass-coaches
and flies are, I am told, very near, and the flies still nearer than
the glass-coaches. The fly people, as the customers were termed to me,
generally live about Gower-street and Burton-crescent, Woburn-place,
Tavistock-square, Upper Baker-street, and other “shabby-genteel”
districts. The great majority of the persons using flies, however,
live in the suburbs, and are mostly citizens and lawyers. The chief
occasions for the engagement of a fly are visits to the theatre, opera,
or parties at night, or else when the wives of the above-named gentry
are going out a-shopping; and then the directions, I am told, are
generally to draw two or three doors away from the shops, so that the
shopmen may not see them drive up in a carriage and charge accordingly.
A number of flies are engaged to carry the religious gentry in the
suburbs to Exeter Hall during the May meetings; and it is they, I am
assured, who are celebrated for over-crowding the vehicles. “Bless
you,” said one man whom I saw, “them folks never think there can be too
many behind a hoss--six is nothing for them,--and it is them who is the
meanest of all to the coachman; for he never, by no chance, receives a
glass at their door.” The great treat of the glass-coachman or flyman,
however, is a wedding; then they mostly look for 5_s._; “but,” said my
informant, “brides and bridegrooms is getting so stingy that now they
seldom gets more than three.” Formerly, I am assured, they used to get
a glass of wine to drink the health of the happy pair; but now the wine
has declined to gin, “and even this,” said one man to me, “we has to
bow and scrape for before we gits it out of ’em.” There is but little
call for glass-coaches compared with flies now. Since the introduction
of the broughams and clarences, the glass-coaches have been almost all
put on one side, and they are now seldom used for anything but taking a
party with a quantity of luggage from the suburbs to the railway. They
were continued at weddings till a short time back, but now the people
don’t like them. “They have got out of date,” said a flyman; “besides,
a clarence or brougham, even with a pair of horses, is one-third
cheaper.” There are no glass-coaches now kept in the yards, if they are
wanted they are hired at the coachmaker’s. Take one job-master with
another, I am informed that they keep on an average six flies each, so
that the total number of hack clarences and broughams in the metropolis
may be said to be near upon 1000. Postboys are almost entirely
discontinued. The majority of them, I am told, have become cabmen. The
number of job-horses kept for chance-work in the metropolis may be
estimated at about 1000, in addition to the cab and omnibus horses,
many of which frequently go out in flies. One lady omnibus proprietor
at Islington keeps, I am told, a large number of flies, and so do many
of the large cab-proprietors.
According to the Government returns, the total number of carriages
throughout Great Britain, in 1848, was 149,000 and odd, which is in the
proportion of 1 carriage to every 33 males of the entire population
above twenty years of age. Of these carriages upwards of 97,000 were
charged with duty, and yielded a revenue of more than 434,000_l._ while
52,000 were exempt from taxation. Those charged with duty consisted
of 67,000 four-wheeled carriages, (of which 26,000 were private
conveyances, and 41,000 let to hire,) and 30,000 two-wheeled carriages,
of which 24,500 were for private use, and 5,500 for the use of the
public:--
The 41,000 four-wheeled carriages let to hire were subdivided in round
numbers as follows:--
Four-wheeled carriages, let to hire without horses 500
Pony-phaetons, &c. drawn by a pair 2,000
Broughams, flies, &c. drawn by one horse 30,000
Hearses 1,700
Post-chaises 5,550
Carriers’ conveyances 1,250
------
41,000
Of the 52,000 carriages exempt from taxation there was the following
distribution:--
Private pony-phaetons 7,000
Ditto pony-chaises 4,500
Chaise-carts 39,000
Conveyances for paupers and criminals 1,500
------
52,000
The owners of four-wheeled private carriages were, it appears from the
same returns, 20,739: of whom,
16,349 persons kept 1 carriage.
3,685 „ 2 „
495 „ 3 „
116 „ 4 „
58 „ 5 „
19 „ 6 „
6 „ 7 „
11 „ 8 and upwards.
Now the total number of persons returned as of independent means, at
the time of taking the last census, was 500,000 and odd: of these very
nearly 490,000 were twenty years of age and upwards. Hence it would
appear that only 1 person in every 23 of those who are independent keep
their carriage.
Such are the statistics of carriages, both public and private, of Great
Britain. What proportion of the vehicles above enumerated belong to the
metropolis I have no means of ascertaining with any accuracy.
The number of horses throughout the country is equally curious. In
1847 there were no less than 800,000 horses in Great Britain, which is
in the proportion of five horses to each carriage, and of one horse
to every six males of the entire population of twenty years of age
and upwards. Of these 800,000 horses, upwards of 320,000 were charged
with duty, while nearly 500,000 were exempt from it. Among the 320,000
horses charged with duty were comprised--
Private riding and carriage-horses 143,000
Draught-horses used in trade 147,000
Ponies 22,000
Butchers’ horses 4,750
Job horses 1,750
Race-horses 1,500
-------
320,000