“In Hindostan” (says Mr. Thrupp) “there are a large number of vehicles of native build. It has been frequently remarked that there is little change in Eastern fashions, that tools and workmen are precisely as they were a thousand years ago, and the work they produce is precisely the same. In examining, therefore, what is now done by Indian coach-builders, we are probably noticing carriages of a similar, if not identical, sort with those in use three thousand years ago. The commonest cart in Hindostan is called ‘hackery’ by Europeans; it is on two wheels, with a high axletree bed and a long platform, frequently made of two bamboos which join in front and form the pole, to which two oxen are yoked; the whole length is united by smaller pieces of bamboo, tied together, not nailed. In France two hundred years ago there was a similar cart, but the main beams terminated in front in shafts; in neither the cart of India nor of France were there any sides or ends. The French cart is called _haquet_, and it is probable that the French, who were in India as well as ourselves, may have given the term hackery to the native cart which was so like their own. The native name, however, is _gharry_. Other carts have sides made by stakes driven into the side beams; the wheels are sometimes of solid wood or even of stone. Wheels are also made by a plank with rounded ends and two felloes fitted on to complete the circle. Again wheels are made like ours, and also with six or eight spokes, which are placed in pairs, each pair close to and parallel with one another. If a carriage for the rich is required the underworks are like those of a cart, but the pole is carefully padded and ornamented with handsome cloths or velvet; the sides of the body are railed or carved, and the top is of a very ornamental character, similar to the howdah of state that is placed on an elephant. It has a domed roof supported upon four pillars, with curtains to the back and sides. The passengers ride cross-legged under the dome on pillows. The driver sits on the pole, which is broad at the butt end, and he is screened from the heat by a cloth which is fastened to the dome roof, and supported upon two stakes which point outwards from the body. A variety of different shaped native vehicles may be seen in elaborate models in the Indian Museum at South Kensington, although they do not show much originality of design or beauty of execution, and are said to be really creaking and lumbering affairs. When the Hindoos wish for a four-wheeled vehicle, the plan appears to be to hook on one two-wheeled carriage behind another, connecting them with a perch bolt, and on the hindermost they place the body. There is a singular addition to their vehicles outside the wheels; a piece of wood curved to the shape of the wheels is placed above it, frequently supported by two straight uprights from the end of the axletree outside the wheel. This acts as a wing