By the above account the _Chariot_ seems to have been the elder Vehicle, or rather the Coach in its infancy; which will lead us towards the etymon of our word _Coach_, and to the original nature of our _Chariot_, though both of them have the same common parent. We may, however, collect enough from these accounts, to satisfy ourselves that the introduction of Coaches took place in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; and Stowe's Continuator adds a very natural consequence:--That, after the Royal example, "divers great ladies made them Coaches, and rode in them up and down the countries, to the great admiration of all the beholders." After this, he tells us, they grew common among the Nobility and opulent Gentry; that within twenty years Coach-making became a great trade, and that Coaches grew into more general use soon after the accession of King James. What sort of Carriages they originally were with us, in point of elegance, is not easily said; but in Germany, about that period, we are told they were--"ugly Vehicles made of four boards, which were put together in a very clumsy manner[343]." Of these, however, my Author adds, that John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, when he went to Warsaw to do homage for the Dutchy of Prussia, A. D. 1618, had in his train thirty-six of these Coaches, each drawn by six horses. [343] Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg, p. 222. Either the Chariots of that time were usually more elegant, or the Denmarkers had more taste than the Germans; for the same Author tells us, that, when the King of Denmark passed through Berlin, in the Reign of the Elector John George, who died 1598, the King made his entry "in a black-velvet Chariot, laced with gold; drawn by eight white coursers, with bits and caparisons all of silver[344]." [344] Memoirs, p. 221. The Chariot I take to have been a much more ancient Vehicle, and an open Vehicle; for we read of them in the Reign of our Henry VII. and even of our Richard II. Queen Elizabeth, when she went to St. Paul's, 1588, after the Spanish Armada, was in a _Chariot_ supported by four pillars, and drawn by two white horses[345]. [345] Nichols's Preface to Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, p. xxiii.