The first Wheel-Carriages of the Coach kind were in use with us in the Reign of King Richard II., and were called _Whirlicotes_; though we cannot but suppose they were such as, but for the name of riding, our ancestors might as well have walked on foot. Let us hear the account given either by Master John Stowe, or some of his Editors, on this matter, who tells us that "Coaches were not known in this Island; but Chariots, or _Whirlicotes_, then so called, and they only used of Princes, or men of great estates, such as had their footmen about them. And for example to note, I read[337] that Richard II. being threatened by the Rebels of Kent, rode from the Tower of London to the Miles-End, and with him his Mother, because she was sick and weak, in a Whirlicote.... But in the year next following, the said Richard took to wife Anne, daughter to the King of Bohemia, who first brought hither the riding upon side-saddles; and so was the riding in those _Whirlicotes_ and Chariots forsaken, except at Coronations, and such like spectacles. But now of late," continues he, "the use of Coaches brought out of Germany, is taken up and made so common, as there is neither distinction of time, nor difference of persons, observed; for the world runs on wheels with many whose parents were glad to go on foot[338]." [337] He cites Lib. S. Mariæ Aborum. [338] Survey of London and Westminster, book i. We may hence suppose that the _Whirlicote_ was not much more than a Litter upon Wheels, and adapted both to state and invalidity, among the higher orders of mankind; for we have seen that they gave place even to riding on Horseback, among the Ladies, as soon as proper Saddles were introduced. The word _Coach_ is evidently French, from their word _Carrosse_, and was formerly often written _Carroche_, as it appears in Stowe's Chronicle, where the two words appear almost in the same sentence. The French word, nevertheless, is not radically such, but formed from the Italian _Carroccio_, or _Carrozza_, for they have both; and that even the latter is a compound of _Carro Rozzo_, it being a _red_ Carriage, whereon the Italians carried the Cross when they took the field. So says Mr. Menage[339]; and if so, this Vehicle passed from Italy to Germany, from thence to France, and at length to us. According to Mr. De Caseneuve, the Italian _Carrocio_ had four wheels; and he adds to what Mr. Menage has said, that they carried their Standards upon it[340]. [339] Orig. Ital. [340] Appendix to Menage, Orig. Fr. The French _Charrette_, from whence our _Chariot_[341], had but two wheels. But we may observe how our word is degraded, for it properly signifies a _Cart_, though it had four wheels[342]. The French, since Coaches came into use, have been ashamed of the term, and call it a Carrosse Coupé, or Half-Coach. [341] Chariot--v. Carruca in Du Cange. Used in France at the end of the Reign of Francis I. and Henry II. [342] Richelet.