Carriages & Coaches: Their History & Their EvolutionStraus, Ralph
History
Carriages & Coaches: Their History & Their Evolution
Straus, Ralph
Carriages and carts
“Every new thing the People disaffect,” wrote Arthur Wilson,
the historian, “They stumble sometimes, at the _action_ for
the _person_, which rises like a little _cloud_ but soon after
vanishes. So after, when _Buckingham_ came to be carried upon
Men’s shoulders the _clamour_ and the _noise_ of it was so
extravagant that the People would rail on him in the Streets,
loathing that Men should be brought to as servile a condition
as Horses. So irksome is every little new impression that
breaks an old _Custom_ and rubs and grates against the _public
humour_. But when Time had made these Chairs common, every
loose _Minion_ used them, so that that which got at first so
much scandal was the means to convey those privately to such
places where they might give much more. Just like _long hair_,
at one time described as abominable, at another time approved
as beautiful. So various are the _fancies_ of the _times_!”
It is to be noticed that Buckingham, according to this account, was
carried upon men’s shoulders. This was the case at first, but such a
mode was speedily changed for that of hand-poles—at once safer and
more comfortable for the occupant, and certainly more convenient for
the men.[23]
John Evelyn disagrees with Wilson and ascribes the introduction of the
chair into England to Sir Saunders Duncombe, a Gentleman-Pensioner
knighted by James I in Scotland in 1617, who enjoyed Buckingham’s
patronage. In his Diary for 1645, he writes of the Neapolitans: “They
greatly affect the Spanish gravity in their habit; delight in good
horses; the streets are full of gallants on horseback, in coaches
and sedans, from hence brought first into England by Sir Saunders
Duncombe.” Undoubtedly Duncombe was responsible for the great
popularity of the chair in England, and for a time held a monopoly in
such chairs as could be had for hire, but it may be that Buckingham
suggested this monopoly in the first place, after the temporary
opposition to their use had been overcome. Which rather suggests that
Spain was actually the first country where they were used, though this
is mere conjecture.
In the meantime much was happening to the coaches. They were
increasing enormously in number, not only those privately owned, but
also those hired out by the day. These latter soon became known as
hackney-coaches.[24] They seem to have been put on the streets as early
as 1605, but “remained in the owner’s yards until sent for.” In 1633
the Strand was chosen as the first regular stand for such coaches by a
Captain Bailey, one of the pioneers of the movement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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