Carriages & Coaches: Their History & Their EvolutionStraus, Ralph
History
Carriages & Coaches: Their History & Their Evolution
Straus, Ralph
Carriages and carts
“Lost the 26th of February, about 9 a Clock at Night, between
the Angel and Crown Tavern in Threadneedle Street, and the
end of Bucklers Berry, the side door of a Chariot, Painted
Coffee Colour, with a Round Cypher in the Pannel, Lin’d with
White Cloath embos’d with Red, having a Glass in one Frame,
and White Canvas in another, with Red Strings to both Frames.
Whoever hath taken it up are desir’d to bring it to Mr.
Jacob’s a Coachmaker at the corner of St. Mary Ax near London
Wall, where they shall receive 30s. Reward if all be brought
with it; or if offer’d to be Pawn’d or Sold, desire it may be
stop’d and notice given, or if already Pawn’d or Sold, their
money again.”
At this time, if not before, it became customary for wealthy people to
possess coaches used only when they were in mourning. So we have:—
“At Mr. Harrison’s, Coach Maker, in the Broadway, Westminster,
is a Mourning Coach and Harness, never used, with a whole Fore
Glass, and Two Glasses and all other Materials (the Person
being deceased); also a Mourning Chariot, being little used,
with all Materials likewise, and a Leather Body Coach, being
very fashionable with a Coafoay Lining and 4 Glasses, and
several sorts of Shazesses, at very reasonable rates.”
What these reasonable rates were does not appear, but we learn from
an agreement made in 1718 between one Hodges, a job-master, and a
private gentleman, the cost of hiring a complete equipage. Hodges was
to maintain “a coach, chariot, and harness neat and clean, and in all
manner of repair at his own charge, not including the wheels, for a
consideration of five shillings and sixpence a day—this to include
a pair of well-matched horses and a good, sober, honest, creditable
coachman.” If extra horses were required for country work, they were to
be had for half a crown the pair per day. And if the coachman should
break the glass when the coach was empty, Hodges and not the private
gentleman should be responsible for the damage.
From another advertisement of about the same time comes the information
that the hammercloth of carriages was constantly being stolen.
Ashton[37] gives three such advertisements.
“Lost off a Gentleman’s Coach Box a Crimson Coffoy Hammer
Cloth, with 2 yellow Laces about it.”
“Lost off a Gentleman’s Coach Box, a Blue Hammer Cloth,
trimm’d with a Gold colour’d Lace that is almost turn’d
yellow.”
“Lost a Red Shag Hammock Cloth, with white Silk Lace round
it, embroider’d with white and blue, and 3 Bulls Heads and a
Squirrel for the Coat of Arms.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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