During the mediæval ages carriages fell into disuse, or were only employed by women and invalids, or by kings and princes on ceremonial occasions. Charlemagne had a wonderful vehicle with richly ornamented wheels and an inlaid roof supported by columns, and the Crusaders on their march had with them large wagons for their baggage. In the fourteenth century new conveyances called _whirlicotes_ and _charettes_ were used. When King Richard II. married Anne of Denmark, the new queen entered London accompanied by her maids of honour, who drove in charettes, which were wagons with benches, painted red and lined with scarlet cloth. On London Bridge were crowds of people anxious to see the royal bride. In the confusion, one of the charettes was overturned and the ladies thrown to the ground. Litters very much like those of Roman days were still to be seen in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At her coronation Queen Elizabeth of York, dressed in white and with her golden hair loose over her shoulders, was carried through London in a rich litter, with a canopy over her head borne by four Knights of the Bath. Anne Boleyn, in 1553, was carried to her coronation in a litter covered with cloth of gold, and the two horses that supported it were clothed in white damask. [Illustration: EARLY SIDE-SADDLE.] During the Middle Ages vehicles were so few because the roads were very bad, and in many places there were only rough bridle-paths from one town to another. Riding was, therefore, the principal means of transit, and horses, mules, and donkeys were used. Very large horses, the ancestors of our present cart-horses, were ridden by the knights, for a warrior in heavy mail could only be carried by a strong animal. This was especially the case when it was necessary for the horse itself to be also clothed in metal armour. The ladies also rode, and side-saddles were first introduced into England by Anne of Bohemia, the wife of Richard II. These saddles were very different from those of the present day, for they were like chairs placed sideways on the horses' backs. Pack-horses were much used in mediæval times, and pictures show us long trains of these animals, each with its heavy load, wending their way along the rough, narrow pathways of old England. CHAPTER II COACHING DAYS