ON PUBLIC CARRIAGES.
Travelling before A.D. 1600--Great Width of Waggon Wheels--Turnpike
Roads--Post Saddle Horses--Hackneys--Stage Coaches--Hackney
Coaches--Cheap Rate of Hire--The York Coach--The Manchester Flying
Coach--The Post Chaise--The Diligence--Post-Boys--Mr T. Pennant on
Travelling--Increase of Mail Coaches--M‘Adam’s Roads--Four-in-Hand
Clubs--Russian Travelling--Two-Wheeled Street Cabs--Street Cabs
need Improvement--Hansom Cabs--Omnibus of Pascal--Omnibus of
1820--Shillibeer’s Omnibuses--General Omnibus Company--American
Coachmaking--Fast Cabs of Vienna.
I mentioned in an earlier lecture that the Romans, during the time of
the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, established a system of public
vehicles for hire. These were stationed at inns or post-houses, at
intervals of five or six miles, and there were twenty or more horses
kept at each inn along the great main roads of Italy, and many of the
dependent countries of Europe and Asia. The chief use of the post-houses
was to supply the public messengers, but they were found of such
accommodation that more horses and vehicles were required for the use of
travellers. The _essedum_, or two-wheeled curricle; the _cisium_, or
gig; and the _rhedum_, a four-wheeled waggon, drawn by four or six
mules, were the chief carriages kept at these stations.
Cesarius, a magistrate in the time of the Emperor Theodosius, went post
from Antioch to Constantinople, six hundred and sixty-five miles, in six
days, with a speed, allowing for stoppages, of about six miles an hour.
Coaches, we have already seen, were introduced into England in the
sixteenth century, stage coaches in the seventeenth, mail coaches in the
eighteenth, and railways in the nineteenth centuries. Each of the four
last centuries had added to and improved upon the systems of passenger
and commercial transit. The facilities for travelling, prior to the
introduction of coaches, were afforded by saddle horses, and by cars or
charettes, (vehicles without springs, as I have already described), by
waggons, and by strings of pack-horses following each other laden with
goods, upon which a passenger occasionally sat. For the sick, and ladies
who did not ride, the litter, carried by men on two poles, or strapped
to mules or horses, was generally adopted.
Persons were in the habit of collecting together and travelling in
company with these conveyances, or in gangs by themselves, or on horses
when they had them, for their mutual protection. Old men can still
recollect strings of pack horses traversing Lancashire and Yorkshire,
and advertisements for companions desired by gentlemen about to ride to
London.
Laws for the improvement of old roads and the making of new, were passed
in the reign of Henry VIII., and special mention is made of those
between St. Clements Danes in the Strand, and Charing Cross, Holborn,
and Southwark as being then noxious and very jeopardous. In the time of
Queen Mary, in 1555, an Act of Parliament ordered the appointment of two
surveyors for each parish, and that the roads should be repaired under
their supervision.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century the long broad wheeled waggons
were introduced into England, and began to pass regularly between the
great towns with goods and passengers. These long waggons first received
the name of “Stages.” There are continual allusions in old books to
their great convenience, although the rate of speed was small.
About one hundred and thirty years ago there seems to have arisen an
extraordinary contest between the owners of waggons and those who
repaired the highways. It was asserted that the waggon wheels destroyed
the road by reason of the great weight of the vehicles and the
narrowness of the tyres.
The question was carried before Parliament, and endeavours were made to
widen the tyres to nine and even ten inches, so as to reduce the
crushing effect of the wheels on soft roads to a minimum. On such roads
it was said there were ruts more than a foot deep, cut by the narrow
wheels. The Legislature endeavoured to promote the use of broad wheels
by exemptions from turnpike tolls, by restrictions and fines upon narrow
wheels, and actually recommended tyres 16 inches wide, under the idea
that they would roll roads flat, just as gravel walks in a garden are
rolled.
In the British Museum is a work by Daniel Bourne, dated 1763, having a
design of a waggon with four wheels in which the front axle-tree is very
short, so that the track outside the front wheels is made to correspond
with the inside of the hind wheels, and they are made like four garden
rollers, each 15 inches wide, so that as the waggon moved 5 feet of the
road should be simultaneously rolled flat.
After a contest of many years it was generally acknowledged that, to
oblige waggoners to carry burdensome wheels to roll the road for
pleasure carriages, was an obvious hardship. Every inch added to the
really necessary width for strength to the tyre of the wheels was felt
by the carrier as a grievance, and the evasion of the government
regulations was sympathised with by the common sense of mankind. It was
left to the waggoner to keep the wheel sufficiently narrow to run
lightly, and sufficiently wide to prevent its sinking with a heavy load
into the road. It was admitted that the chief person interested in the
matter was the waggoner, as, if his wheels turned heavily over the road
by reason of sinking into the surface, then he would fine himself by
being obliged to use more horses, or by travelling very slowly.
During the whole of the sixteenth century the improvement of English
main and cross-roads continued steadily advancing by the system of
turnpike tolls, on the security of which money was borrowed by the
parishes in order to make them. Although for a long time there was
great opposition, yet the system suited the time, and was probably, in
our free country, the only way to obtain them. In France, on the other
hand, the nobility made their roads by the forced labour of the peasants
within their territory--one of the instances of cruel oppression that
led to the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1786, as the poor
peasants were obliged, from time to time, to leave the cultivation of
the fields and turn out with carts and horses to labour for two or three
weeks together at the repair of the roads, and this, too, without any
payment.
In 1617, an author named Fynes Morryson relates, that “there were post
horses in England, at stations about ten miles apart, that could be
hired by travellers on horseback at the charge of 2½d. per mile to 3d.,”
but, he adds, “most travellers ride their own horses. In some counties a
horse can be hired at 3d. per day, finding the food. Likewise carriers
let horses from city to city bargaining that the passengers put up at
their inns. They will lend a horse for five or six days thus, and
provide its food at these inns for about 20s. Lastly, these carriers
have long covered waggons in which they carry passengers to and fro; but
this kind of journeying is very tedious; so that none but women and
people of inferior condition travel in this sort. Coaches are not to be
hired anywhere (this was in 1617) but in London. For a day’s journey a
coach with two horses is let for about 10s. a day, or 15s. with three
horses, the coachman finding the horses’ feed.”
Yet in 1610 a native of Stralsund, in Pomerania, obtained in Scotland a
Royal patent giving him the exclusive privilege of running coaches and
waggons between Edinburgh and Leith.
The horses that were hired for travellers were called in France
“hacqueneè,” and in Wales “hacknai,” which term extended into England,
and after was applied to hired coaches, thence named Hackney Coaches.
Samuel Pepys, in his Diary of 1662, speaks of riding his hacqueneè to
Woolwich, at a period when he did not keep any horse of his own.
I have already mentioned that long waggons were the first stages; their
use commenced before the year 1600, but for the poorer classes there was
no other conveyance for many years, and it was late in the eighteenth
century before stage coaches were able to give any accommodation to
persons with a small purse.
The Stage Coach began to be used in 1640, the same description of
vehicle as that in use for private or hackney work, but of a larger
size. The body would hold eight persons at times, but generally only
six; the passengers were screened from the weather by leather curtains.
It was not until the year 1680 that plate glass was sufficiently cheap
to be used for windows. The coachman sat on a bar between the two
standard posts from which the body was slung, with his feet upon the
footboard fixed to the top of the perch. Behind, between the great
wheels, was the basket for luggage, in which the outside passengers also
sat up to their knees in straw. The body swung about upon heavy leather
straps through the rough country roads.
In 1649 Chamberlayne, in a work entitled “The Present State of Great
Britain,” speaks up for coaches. “Besides the excellent arrangement of
conveying men and letters on horseback, there is of late such an
admirable commodiousness both for men and women, to travel from London
to the principal towns in the country, that the like hath not been known
in the world; and that is by stage coaches, wherein any one may be
transported to any place sheltered from foul weather and foul ways, free
from endamaging of one’s health and one’s body by hard jogging or
over-violent motion on horseback; and this not only at the low price of
about a shilling for every five miles, but with such velocity and speed
in one hour as the foreign post can make but in one day.”
In 1662, when there were but six stage coaches, another writer of the
day condemned them. “For,” he says, “these coaches make country
gentlemen come to London on small occasion, which otherwise they would
not do but upon urgent necessity; nay, the conveniency of the passage
makes their wives often come up, who, rather than make such long
journeys on horseback, would stay at home. Here, when they come to town,
they must be in the fashion, get fine clothes, go to plays and treats,
and by this means get such a habit of idleness and love of pleasure that
they are uneasy ever after.”
Another writer in 1673 opposes stages. “Is it,” he asks, “for a man’s
health to be laid fast in foul ways, and forced to wade up to the knees
in mire; and afterwards sit in the cold till fresh teams of horses can
be procured to drag the coach out of the foul ways? Is it for his health
to travel in rotten coaches, and have their tackle, or perch, or
axle-tree broken, and then to wait half the day before making good their
stage?”
This gives us some idea of the badness of the roads, and the
imperfection of the vehicles. These last, however, were not improved in
the time of Hogarth, who, in 1730, painted a stage coach waiting in an
inn-yard.
In the Diary of Sir William Dugdale we find records of his journeys by
stage coaches between 1659 and 1680, to the towns of Norwich, Coventry,
Chester, St Albans, Bedford, and Birmingham during the reign of Charles
II.
Hackney coaches were first used in England in 1605 [Plates 13, 14, and
22]. These were similar to the coaches used by the gentry; at first they
did not ply for hire in the streets, but remained at the hiring-yards
until they were wanted. As, however, many more persons wished to hire
than could afford to keep a coach of their own, the demand increased
rapidly. In 1635 the number was restricted to fifty. Still they
increased in spite of the opposition of the court and king, who thought
they would break up the roads, till, in 1650, there were as many as
three hundred. In Paris they were introduced by Nicholas Sauvage, who
lived in a street at the sign of St Fiacre, and from this circumstance
hackney coaches were called in France “Fiacres,” and they became very
common and popular. In 1772 the hire of fiacres in Paris was a shilling
the first hour, and tenpence the second. In London, in 1662 there were
four hundred hackney coaches, and the government began then to levy a
yearly duty upon them of £5 each. In 1694 the number had increased to
seven hundred, a substantial proof of their usefulness. Mr Pepys, in his
amusing Diary, continually speaks of hiring coaches for use in London,
and to go to Deptford and Woolwich, in his journeys to the dockyards in
his business for the Admiralty.
Many of these were the old coaches of the nobility and gentry, and it is
not until 1790 that we hear from Mr Felton that the hackney coaches were
generally built of a smaller size, and much shorter in the under
carriage than those of the gentry. Their hire appears to have been very
moderate, to judge by the records of Dean Swift, who resided in London
for three years in the days of Queen Anne (1710 to 1713), and who made
frequent use of hackney coaches, and on wet days did not venture out
without a coach or a sedan chair. It would seem he could ride from the
city to the neighbourhood of St Giles for one or two shillings.
To return to stage coaches, we are told that in 1673 there were coaches
from London to York, to Chester, and to Exeter, having each forty horses
on the road, and carrying each six inside passengers. The coach occupied
eight days in travelling to Exeter, but the fare was only forty
shillings in the summer and fine weather; in winter the same coach was
nearly ten days on the road, and the fare was increased to forty-five
shillings. There were four-horse stage coaches going daily to places
within twenty or thirty miles of London, and others that went to places
within ten miles and returned the same day.
In 1703, a stage coach went from London to Portsmouth, when the roads
were good, in fourteen hours.
In 1706, a coach went from London to York every Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday, which performed the journey in four days, allowing each
passenger fourteen pounds of luggage free, and above that weight the
charge was threepence per pound.
In 1742 the Oxford stage used to leave London at seven in the morning,
reaching High Wycombe at five in the evening, and, resting the night,
proceeded to Oxford the next day.
In the same year there was a coach from London to Birmingham, starting
on Monday and arriving on Wednesday, forty miles a day, but the coach
usually stopped half one day at Oxford.
In 1751, a stage coach went to Dover, arriving at Canterbury the same
night, reaching Dover early the next day, and starting on its return to
London the same afternoon. The advertisement states that there is a
conveniency behind the coach for baggage and outside passengers. This
implies that it was not, even at this late date, usual to carry
passengers on the roof, and that the general structure of the vehicle
was similar to the stage coach of 1640; one change had been made: the
driving box on the fast coaches was placed high above the horses on a
narrow boot, something like what is called a Salisbury boot; this was
placed upon the beds or timbers of the carriage, with a tolerably
comfortable seat for two persons upon it. But the jolting and shaking
over rough bits in the road must have been very trying. In the hall of
the Coachmakers’ Company, in Noble Street, Cheapside, is a picture of
Hyde Park Corner in 1796, painted by Dagaty, in which is an old stage
coach; the hinder part has a boot and guard’s seat attached to the body
as in modern stage coaches, but the box is detached from the body and on
the beds, as described above; the panels of the body are very deep, and
on the upper quarters are painted two large stars, from which we may
conjecture that it is a mail coach.[6]
_From the Ipswich Journal, August 1754._
THIS IS TO GIVE NOTICE
“That a handsome Machine, with steel springs for the ease of
passengers and the conveniency of the Country, began on Monday, the
8th of July 1754, to set off from Chelmsford every morning at 7
o’clock, Sunday excepted, to the Bull Inn, Leadenhall Street, to be
there by 12 o’clock, and to return the same day at 2 o’clock to be
at Chelmsford by 7 o’clock in the evening. Fresh horses will be
taken at the White Hart at Brentwood and the Green Man at Ilford.
To be performed, if God permits, by TYRRELL & HUGHES.”
In 1754 a coach was started from Manchester called “the Flying coach.”
The advertisement states, “however incredible it may appear, this coach
will actually arrive in London in four days and a half after leaving
Manchester.”
The sort of vehicles stage coaches usually were in those days will
appear from the following:--
“In 1755 stage coaches are described[7] as covered with dull black
leather, studded, by way of ornament, with broad-headed nails, with oval
windows in the quarters, the frames painted red. On the panels were
displayed, in large characters, the names of the places whence the coach
started and whither it went. The roof rose in a high curve, with an iron
rail around it. The coachman and guard sat in front upon a high narrow
boot, often garnished with a spreading hammer-cloth with a deep fringe.
Behind was an immense basket, supported by iron bars, in which
passengers were carried at lower fares. The wheels were painted red. The
whole coach was usually drawn by three horses, on the first of which a
postillion rode with a cocked hat and a long green and gold coat. The
machine groaned and creaked as it went along with every tug the horses
gave, and the speed was frequently but four miles an hour.”
The first Post-chaise built in England was only on two wheels, and was
open in front. This corresponds with the description of the _chaise de
poste_ of France. In 1765 the stage coaches from Dover to London were
drawn by six horses; the fare was a guinea. Servants paid half a guinea,
riding either in the basket behind or on the box, which held three
persons. In 1775 stage coaches are stated in the Annual Register to
carry eight passengers inside and ten outside, and that there were
(including vehicles called flys, machines, diligences, and stage
coaches) four hundred altogether. In 1779 a licence duty was first
levied by government on stage coaches. Increased accommodation was
provided by seats on the top. It must have been at this time that the
front and hind boots began to be framed to the coach body, or there
would have been no rest for the feet of the roof passengers.
In 1798 a stage coach ran from Gosport to London, 86 miles, in 19 hours:
4½ miles per hour. It is not until 1754 that we have a reliable account
of any stage coach being upon springs, but in that year, in the
newspaper called the _Edinburgh Courant_, appears the following
advertisement:--“The Edinburgh Stage Coach, for the better accommodation
of passengers, will be altered to a new genteel two-end glass coach
machine, being upon steel springs, exceeding light and easy, to go in
ten days to London in summer and twelve in winter, every other Tuesday.”
This coach rested all Sunday at Burrowbridge.
In 1757 a coach was started to run in three days from Liverpool to
London; Sheffield and Leeds followed the examples of Manchester and
Liverpool, and set up “speedy coaches,” so that in 1784 coaches became
universal at the speed of eight miles an hour.
In France, we learn from M. Roubo’s work, that in 1760 the Diligences
(their stage coaches) were constructed much as ours, with large bodies
having three small windows on each side and hung by leather braces on
long perch carriages, with high hind wheels and low front wheels,
without any driving box, and fitted with large baskets, back and front,
for passengers or luggage; they were drawn by five horses, and driven by
a postillion on the off wheeler instead of the near wheeler, as in
England. One of their Diligences running to Lyons had springs [Plate
35], and it is noted by M. Roubo as the only Diligence in France with
springs, and also the most speedy. It performed the journey to Lyons,
about three hundred and twenty miles, in five days during the summer and
six in winter. Deducting the time allowed for refreshments, changing
horses, and resting at night, the speed of the Diligence appears to have
been between five and six miles an hour. M. Roubo also describes a large
stage coach called a Gondola, holding twelve persons inside, ten sitting
sideways and one at each end; this vehicle may be considered as the
grandfather of the omnibus, which was first made at Paris. Another coach
was called a coupè Berlin, having four doors and three seats, the middle
seat corresponding to the third inside seat of the so-called stage
coaches used in America at the present time. There was, however, a
backboard to lean against, but I believe that in the American stage
coach the back of the middle seat is only a wide strap. The other
travelling public carriage in France was the “chaise de poste” upon two
wheels [Plate 25], which I have already described in a former chapter. I
remember to have seen one of these at Amiens thirty years ago painted
yellow like so many of the English post-chaises. There are probably many
of these vehicles still in France. They are much like our gentlemen’s
cabriolets, but larger and heavier, and are drawn by one stout horse in
the shafts, with a second horse ridden by the postillion, attached to an
out-rigger-bar on one side of the shafts. The chaise de poste was first
made in France in 1664.
To return to our own country. Stage coaches had increased so much in
speed that in 1780 they were quicker than the post which carried the
letters.
For a long time letters had been entrusted to the bags of the post-boys,
who travelled on horseback at the rate of about three and a half miles
an hour. Mr John Palmer, the originator of mail coaches, in the year
1784 gave the following statement to the Government:--“The Post at
present, instead of being the swiftest, is almost the slowest conveyance
in the country; and though, from the great improvement in our roads,
other carriers have proportionably mended their speed, the post is as
slow as ever. Rewards have been frequently offered by the
Postmaster-General for the best constructed mail-cart, or some plan to
prevent the frequent robbery of the mail, but without effect.” Palmer,
who resided at Bath, went on to state, “that the coach diligence, which
left Bath at four o’clock on Monday afternoon, would deliver a letter in
London about ten on Tuesday morning, whilst the post would not deliver a
letter until Wednesday morning. The only advantage of the post was its
greater cheapness. The post charged only fourpence from Bath to London
for each letter, whilst one by the coach diligence cost two shillings.
Nevertheless, many persons, both at Bath and Bristol, sent by the dearer
and quicker mode, and all over the kingdom, wherever diligences[8] were
established, they obtained the patronage of the public.”
At first any improvement on the Post was warmly opposed by the officials
and committees of the Houses of Parliament, and it was declared
impossible that letters could be brought from Bath to London, only one
hundred and eight miles, in eighteen hours, _i.e._, six miles an hour.
After some careful experiments, and a struggle of two years, Mr Palmer’s
system was adopted, and his new-fashioned mail coaches were accepted to
convey the mails. For some years the mail coaches did not run at more
than six miles an hour: they were built in a cumbrous form to carry six
persons inside. In this same year (1786) the Prince of Wales, afterwards
George IV., began to erect the pavilion at Brighton, bringing
fashionable company into the mere fishing hamlet which it then was. The
effect upon the traffic was very great, and led to the reform of the
whole of the south and south-western roads, and in 1820, thirty-five
years later, no less than seventy coaches daily visited and left
Brighton.
Mr Thomas Pennant, the celebrated antiquarian, writing in 1782, says,
“that in March 1739, he travelled to London in a Chester stage, then no
despicable vehicle for country gentlemen. The first day, with much
labour, we got from Chester to Whitechurch, twenty miles; the second
day, to the Welsh Harp; the third, to Coventry; the fourth, to
Northampton; the fifth, to Dunstable; and, as a wondrous effort, on the
last, to London before the commencement of night. The strain and labour
of six good horses, sometimes eight, drew us through the sloughs of
Mireden, and many other places. We were constantly out two hours before
day, and late at night; and in the depth of winter proportionably
later.”
“Families who travelled in their own carriages contracted with Benson &
Co., and were dragged up in the same number of days, by three sets of
able horses.”
“The single gentlemen, then a hardy race, equipped in jack-boots and
trowsers up to their middle, rode post through thick and thin, and,
guarded against the mire, defied the frequent stumble and fall; arose
and pursued their journey with alacrity; while in these days their
enervated posterity sleep away their rapid journies in easy chaises,
fitted for the conveyance of the soft inhabitants of Sybaris.”
In 1799 His Majesty’s mails were paraded in procession past St James’s
Palace to the General Post-Office, and it is said that the custom was
kept up for thirty-six years on the king’s birthday. Each coach was new,
or turned out to look like new, and was painted red with the Royal arms
on the door panel, and on the smaller panel above the name of the town
to which the coach went, on the boot the number of the mail, and on each
upper quarter one of the stars of the four orders of the knighthood of
the United Kingdom, the Garter, the Bath, the Thistle, and St. Patrick.
The coaches were built just big enough to contain four inside and three
or four outside, and coachman and guard. The body was hung upon a perch
carriage and eight telegraph springs, the underworks being both solid
and simple in construction. At first the number was about eighty, but
more were added as time went on, until there were at length seven
hundred mail coaches in the year 1835. Only a small quantity, however,
left London, the rest were dispersed all over Great Britain and Ireland.
These mail coaches were at first built and kept in repair by contract in
London. The experience gained by watching these vehicles was very
advantageous to the coach trade; anything faulty in timber or iron,
steel or paint, was soon discovered by the vigilant contractors and
remedied, and their plans and devices spread through the trade to the
benefit of masters and workmen.
The improvement of stage coaches and their multiplication kept pace with
the mails. Turnpike roads also had been much improved by Mr M‘Adam’s
system. He substituted on roads hitherto laid with gravel of all sizes,
and round or carelessly broken stones of other qualities and materials,
the improved surfaces of granite and other hard stones and flints,
carefully broken into small angular pieces, which during the passage of
heavy traffic dovetailed into one another, and made the surface firmer,
whereas the round pebbles, under the old system, would slip from under
the wheels and leave the surface of the road still uneven.
The factories for building stage coaches grew to be of large size and
importance. Coach proprietors were often very successful, and their
business increased until Mr Chaplin had two hotels, five yards, and 1300
horses at work. Messrs Horne and Sherman had 700 horses each; and Mr
Nelson, of the “Bull Inn,” Aldgate, rivalled these. Stage coaches, as
they carried more luggage and more outside passengers, were necessarily
built stronger and rather heavier than the mail coaches. The cross
roads, however, became gradually filled up with old mails re-painted,
and stage coaches were also built upon elliptical springs in front, and
generally three springs behind.
Gentlemen took to driving coaches for amusement, and vehicles were built
with high coach boxes and high hind servants’ seat; of different forms,
it is true, and upon different sorts of springs. Two coaching clubs were
formed of noblemen and gentlemen, who took an interest in four-in-hand
driving and in vehicles in general. Several clubs of this kind are now
flourishing, to encourage a manly sport, and with the capacity to
promote improvements in the build and form of the “drag,” as it is now
called.
In Ireland, Mr Bianconi established a good system of travelling upon
long four-wheeled cars of a light construction. The passengers sat back
to back, and the luggage was piled between, and frequently so high that
the traveller had only the opportunity of seeing one side of the road
along which he passed. These vehicles would give more satisfaction
now-a-days if better horses were used, and for shorter stages, on those
routes where passengers are plentiful, but prefer to travel at more than
five miles per hour.
In Switzerland and some parts of the continent, the use of large
diligences still continues. Some of the old shape [Plate 36] recently
performed the journey from Geneva towards Chamounix. The shape of modern
diligences varies very much, many are like omnibuses; but almost all are
without a perch and upon elliptical springs. In Continental travel may
also be seen large family travelling carriages, as well as very light
one-horse vehicles for mountain roads, and the further eastwards the
traveller proceeds, the rougher and more simple the vehicle. In Russia
may be found very rough, cheap, fast waggons, as well as the “Tarantas,”
which is a very comfortable travelling carriage for the wealthy, and
with its numerous boxes and appliances, its bed and store cupboards for
food, is almost a small house upon wheels.
Thus, whilst in our history we have enumerated the various methods of
travelling used by our forefathers, we may, in passing from England to
Persia overland, still have personal experience of almost all of these
methods. All travelling dependent upon the speed of a horse has been, on
good roads, almost the same in all ages. It is only since the
introduction of locomotion by steam on railroads that we have attained
any great advance upon ancient times. The years during which rapid stage
coach and post chaise travelling seemed such a remarkable advance to
Englishmen, only lasted from about 1810 to 1840. Since then the triumph
of steam has in many places paralysed the improvement of stage coaches
and posting
[Illustration: PLATE 34. AN ENGLISH STAGE COACH, 1787, AFTER ROWLANDSON]
[Illustration: PLATE 35. DILIGENCE FROM PARIS TO LYONS.]
[Illustration: PLATE 36. MODERN FRENCH DILIGENCE.]
upon ordinary roads, even where steam does not compete.
In France two-wheeled vehicles for public hire had been in use for some
years previous to the commencement of the present century; but it was
not until 1823 that London possessed a two-wheeled cab. In that year Mr
David Davies built twelve two-wheeled cabs. The body was a little like a
hansom cab, but smaller; it had a head of which the hinder half was
stiff and solid, the fore part would fold. This arrangement was probably
an imitation of the gentleman’s cabriolet, the hood of which was rarely
put down altogether, as the groom had to hold on by it.[9] Outside the
head on one side was a seat for the driver of the cab, and the whole was
hung upon stiff shafts. They were, I think, painted yellow, and stood
for hire in a yard in Portland Street, close to Oxford Street. At this
time the stands in the streets were occupied by hackney coaches, which
certainly were all old coaches of the gentry; many still bore the arms
of the former owners, and the drivers wore great coats with a large
number of capes, one over the other, to keep in warmth and keep off the
rain. It was not long before the two-wheeled cab became popular, and
came on the ranks with the coaches. Mr Davies’ cab was copied, but with
little variation from his pattern, and the total number of cabs in 1830
was one hundred and sixty-five. After this came Mr Boulnois’ patent
one-horse cab with a door behind, like a slice of an omnibus, the two
passengers sitting face to face, the driver sitting on the roof--this
cab it was hoped would succeed, but the shafts were too short, and the
passengers always felt uneasy in case the horse should kick, and the
vehicle, otherwise light and useful, fell out of fashion.
Mr Boulnois’ cab was followed by a larger sort invented by Mr Harvey,
and at last, about 1836, came the brougham cab to hold two persons; this
was rather smaller than that afterwards built for Lord Brougham, and of
plainer outline, with straight fore pillar. From this we derive our
present clarence cab on four wheels, which we may pronounce as the
lightest of all four-wheeled close cabs, but it is certainly anything
but satisfactory. It carries, it is true, a large quantity of luggage on
the roof, besides six persons, and runs along faster than the cabs of
most other cities, but it is abominably noisy, and very rough in motion,
uneasy and uncomfortable. Whoever will produce an improved four-wheel
cab will deserve the thanks of his countrymen. The first step to this, I
consider, would be the authorisation by law of two classes of fares. Let
the present cab remain at the present fare, but allow a first-class cab
to charge a higher fare, and appoint a proper person or persons to
inspect the cabs, and to license the first-class cabs to charge a higher
fare. The second step would be to insist on the first-class cabs having
patent or mail axles, and covered glass frames to lessen the rattle, and
to adopt a regulating spring, which would assist in carrying a heavy
load. Regulating springs can easily be made; they are unsightly on a
private carriage; but this would be no objection in a public conveyance.
It might be in the form of a buffer in the centre of the elliptical
spring, or a second elliptic within the first, but the ingenuity of our
spring makers would soon surmount the difficulty if the proper authority
insisted upon the attempt.
The Hansom patent safety cab is an immense improvement upon the old high
two-wheeled cab. We owe the invention to a Mr Hansom, the architect of
the Birmingham Town Hall. The safety consisted in the arrangement of the
framework at the nearest part to the ground, so as to prevent an upset
if the cab tilted up or down. It has since been improved by Mr Evans, of
Liverpool; Mr Marston, of Birmingham; and others, until the recently
built hansoms are really convenient, easy, and comfortable conveyances,
and receive the patronage of many ladies in preference to the
four-wheelers.
Cabs of other towns of England and foreign countries have all their
peculiar features. Many English towns allow a higher charge per mile
than in London. In Plymouth, Southampton, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and
some other towns the cabs are light, easy, and quiet. In Bristol they
were recently heavy and slow, large and clumsy. In Paris, the cabs are
chiefly old broughams of the gentry, with poor, slow horses; but during
a great part of the year the stands have abundance of light, open
victorias, some of which are satisfactory, being easy and clean. In
Rome, nearly all the cabs are open victorias, with hoods and a leather
apron, which is, however, but a poor protection in heavy rain; the
drivers are generally civil and intelligent. In Naples the cabs are also
victorias of a smaller size, and hung higher from the ground, with
little horses generally of a very sorry description. Milan has very good
cabs, and the best omnibuses I have ever ridden in, quite like our
private omnibuses, and they are kept up in very good condition. The
streets are paved at Milan very evenly, and have tracks or tramways for
the wheels, of long blocks of granite, on a perfect level with the rest
of the pavement. These were first laid down at the beginning of this
century, and have probably contributed to the general excellence of the
carriages built at Milan. This city was one of the first to make
improved carriages, even before France and England.
In the year 1662 a remarkable attempt was made to furnish a method of
transport which should be within the reach of all, a sort of Omnibus
carriage. It was originated and managed by Blaise Pascal, the well-known
author of the _Lettres Provinciales_. He was assisted by several
noblemen, who obtained a patent from the king for the privilege. The
design was to run public coaches, carrying six persons each, along
certain streets in Paris, each coach keeping to its own route, for the
sum of five sous each passenger for the whole journey.
This was commenced in March 1662 with seven coaches, the drivers in a
blue uniform, with the king’s and city’s arms embroidered upon it. The
coaches bore golden _fleur de lys_ on the panels. At first they were a
great success, and the sister of Pascal wrote to a friend, “I heard the
blessings that were called down on the authors of an institution so
advantageous and useful to the public.” This was a general opinion. Two
more lines of route were chosen, and the number of coaches increased.
They were called “the carriages of the five soldi.” It was, however,
found necessary to raise the fare to six soldi, and this, with the
increasing number of hackney coaches, the prohibition of the use of the
omnibus by soldiers, servants, or any one in livery, and probably the
death of Pascal himself, at the early age of thirty-nine, brought the
enterprise to a premature end after the coaches had run nearly two
years.
Stage coaches at the beginning of this century were used in London to
bring men of business into the city, and the fare was ordinarily two
shillings from Paddington or Clapham; they were slow and unpunctual,
being usually an hour over the five miles. The first Omnibuses were
built at Paris in 1820, were drawn by three horses, and soon became much
in vogue; they were never very fast, and still are slower than our
omnibuses, not because they cannot be driven fast, for occasionally they
keep up a good speed, but because our neighbours attach so much
importance to the waybill, and stop at certain stations to take up
passengers, or exchange some for the branch lines, and tickets are given
at these stations beforehand bearing numbers which entitle the bearers
to be first served. These regulations detain the omnibuses very much;
the same remarks apply also to the tramways, on which the progress is
still slower than by the omnibuses. There is at Paris an excellent
service of omnibuses for the conveyance of passengers and luggage from
the hotels to the railway stations. They hold eight inside, and are
quick and easy. All over the Continent the hotels have the best
omnibuses; some of them are of large size, well stuffed, and lighted at
night with good lamps. Sometimes each hotel has its own ’bus; sometimes
one will serve several hotels.
The first Omnibus was started in London in July 1829, by the
enterprising Mr Shillibeer, who had been for a short time a coachmaker
at Paris. His first omnibuses were drawn by three horses, and carried
twenty-two passengers, all inside. They ran in a shorter time to the
city than the old stages; the fare was a shilling from the “Yorkshire
Stingo,” near the bottom of Lisson Grove, to the Bank.
We can imagine how unwieldy these carriages appeared even compared with
the stage coaches and hackney coaches of the day, yet they soon proved a
success; they followed the horses so easily that the drivers were
astonished. The passengers were pleased by the speed, and the scheme
should have been very profitable to Mr Shillibeer. The first omnibuses
were thought too large for the streets of London, and they were
superseded by a smaller pair-horse omnibus, carrying twelve passengers
inside, and an extra one or two at the end of the omnibus, by the
driver, but it was a very unpopular position.
In 1849, an outside seat was added along the centre of the roof, and by
1857 the omnibus had been improved nearly to what we now have, and this
was chiefly done by Mr Miller, of Hammersmith.
Our present omnibus is probably the lightest and strongest vehicle in
the world for carrying twenty-eight persons, at a speed of nearly eight
miles an hour. If tried with four horses on a country road they easily
beat the old-fashioned stage coach, either in weight, capacity for
carrying, durability, or safety.
Large omnibuses are in use in Glasgow and Manchester, and other towns
where speed is not so much an object as it is in London, and they have
been re-introduced in London between Charing Cross and Portland Road,
and there are a few small one-horse omnibuses for short distances. It is
not necessary to describe these vehicles at any length; it is sufficient
to notice that they must be light and strong for the work they have to
perform, and the peculiar shape enables the builder to secure this.
The London General Omnibus Company has contributed greatly to the
improvement of the system of public conveyance. It was founded in 1856,
when it took over five hundred and eighty omnibuses previously in use,
and belonging to a large number of different owners. The company had
6,400 horses the first year. Although many of their omnibuses have been
superseded by the metropolitan and district railways, and the
establishment of tramway cars, they have still 560 omnibuses and 6000
horses to work them. Each omnibus runs about sixty miles a day. The
company builds for its own use about thirty ’busses each year; the
average weight of an omnibus is 24 cwt. Most of the vehicles are now
provided with brake retarders, which are set in action by the foot of
the driver, and check the speed down hill, or help to stop the omnibus
to take up a passenger without so much strain upon the horses as
formerly.
In Vienna the public omnibuses are longer, and are divided into two
compartments, entered by separate doors; they carry twelve inside and
six outside. The speed is rather slow and the appearance of most very
shabby. In summer other omnibuses are also used, which are constructed
without sides or windows, and in hot weather are agreeable from the free
admission of air without draught.
American stage coaches began in 1786. As early as 1697 an innkeeper,
named John Clapp, at the Bowery, New York, kept a hackney coach for the
accommodation of the public; and in 1699 a law was made forbidding fast
driving of “slees” through the streets of New York. The first private
coach owned there appears to have been in 1745 by a Lady Murray. In 1786
there were but three Coachmakers’ factories in New York: Mr Steel, in
Pine Street, Mr Jones, and James and Charles Warner, in Broadway.
In 1789 six more factories had been opened in the coach trade, and five
livery yards had begun to keep hackney coaches. In 1790 a coach was
built in Philadelphia for eight hundred dollars, and there were eight
Coachbuilders in that city. But the usual vehicle was a sort of wheel
chair upon wooden springs, and from recent accounts it seems that gigs,
hung upon long wooden springs, are still in use in the United States and
Canada.
The _Historical Magazine_ states that in 1805 the English chariot was
copied in America, but that it was found cheaper to order these
carriages from Europe, on account of the high price of material, and the
excessive cost of wages. In 1810 there were twenty-eight factories
occupied by Coachmakers in New York. In 1822 a New York Coachmaker,
named Miln Parker, had begun to make a name by building “volantes” for
the Cuban and Mexican markets. These volantes are gigs, with hoods,
perched upon two very high wheels, much used by the ladies of Spanish
America.
I should have mentioned that the cabs of Vienna are of a superior
description, consisting of victorias, broughams, and landaus, as well
built and finished as those used by private persons. Many of these cabs
are drawn by two horses, and are driven at a rapid rate. It would be a
great benefit to London if we could procure such conveyances at a
shilling, or even more, per mile.
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