About 1790 the art of coach-building had arrived at a very high degree of perfection,[25] and carriages in great variety of shape were built. A feature common to all, or nearly all, was the height of the wheels. The highest were 5 feet 8 inches in diameter; these had 14 spokes, and the number of spokes were reduced in ratio with the size of the wheel, till the smallest, 3 feet 2 inches in diameter, had only 8 spokes. A good example of the coach of 1790 may be seen in the South Kensington Museum; it belonged to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and, save for the greater size of the body, the flatness of its sides and greater length above than below, is not widely dissimilar from coaches of the present day. [25] _Treatise upon Carriages and Harness._ W. Felton, London, 1794. The Landau, invented at Landau in Germany, in 1757, was, about 1790, made to open in the middle of the roof or “hood,” and became very popular as combining the advantages of a closed coach with an open carriage; the chief objection to Landaus was the greasiness and smell of the blacking leather of which the hoods were constructed. The name of the phaeton first occurs in a patent granted in 1788. Phaetons of various shapes came into fashion later: all were built to be driven by the owner, and probably gained much in popular esteem from the fact that George IV., when Prince of Wales, used to drive a “Perch High Phaeton” in the Park and to race meetings. Some of these vehicles were extravagantly high, and it was the correct thing to drive four horses in them at the fastest trot. The “Perch High Phaeton” was shaped like a curricle and had a hood. “The centre of the body was hung exactly over the front axle-tree, the front wheels were 4 feet high, and the hind wheels 5 feet 8 inches” (Thrupp). [Illustration: _By J. Doyle._ KING GEORGE IV. IN HIS PONY PHAETON.] The pony phaeton owed its popularity to King George IV., who, in 1824, desired to possess a low carriage into which he could step without exertion; old pictures show us that the pony phaeton of the present day is very like the original vehicle. Such a phaeton was built for our late Queen, then Princess Victoria, in 1828. It should be said that C springs were first used by English coach builders about the year 1804. Among other curious carriages was the “Whisky,” a two-wheeled gig with a movable hood, the body connected with the long horizontal springs by scroll irons, The “suicide gig” was an absurdly high vehicle which was popular in Ireland; in this the groom was perched on something resembling a stool 3 feet above his master who drove.