The coachman, as we learn from the water-poet, was “mounted (his fellow-horses and himselfe being all in a finery) with as many varieties of laces, facings, Clothes and Colours as are in the Rainebowe.” Nor was he over-polite, particularly if the coach he drove was hired. In Jonson’s _Staple of News_ one of the pieces of mock-news to appear in the ideal paper concerns the fraternity:— “and coachmen To mount their boxes reverently, and drive Like lapwings with a shell upon their heads Through the streets.” They seem to have thought that their finery allowed them to treat the pedestrians with but scant respect. And no wonder these “way-stopping whirligigges,” as Taylor calls the coaches, surprised the inhabitants. When one of them was seen for the first time, “some said it was a great Crab-shell brought out of _China_, and some imagin’d it to be one of the Pagan Temples in which the Cannibals adored the devill.” For some time, indeed, the coaches must have given the common folk something to think about. A coach rumbling along brought them to their windows, just as the horseless carriage, centuries later, proved a similar attraction. There is a scene in _Eastward Hoe_ which well illustrates this point. _Enter a Coachman in haste in ’s frock, feeding._ _Coach._ Here’s a stir when citizens ride out of town indeed, as if all the house were afire! ’Slight, they will not give a man leave to eat ’s breakfast afore he rises. _Enter Hamlet, a footman, in haste._ _Ham._ What coachman? My lady’s coach, for shame! her ladyship’s ready to come down. _Enter Potkin, a tankard bearer._ _Pot._ ’Sfoot, Hamlet, are you mad? whither run you now?... _Enter Mrs. Fond and Mrs. Gazer._ _Fond._ Come, sweet mistress Gazer, let’s watch here, and see my Lady Flash take coach. _Gazer_. O’ my word, here’s a most fine place to stand in. Did you see the new ship launch’d last day, Mrs. Fond? _Fond._ O God, and we citizens should lose such a sight! _Gazer._ I warrant here will be double as many people to see her take coach, as there were to see it take water. My lady’s point of view is put forward by Lady Eitherside in _The Devil is an Ass_. Says she:— “If we once see it under the seals, wench, then, Have with them for the great caroch, six horses, And the two coachmen, with my Ambler bare, And my three women; we will live, i’ faith, The example of the town, and govern it. I’ll lead the fashion still.”