In a few years Shillibeer was well known as an undertaker, and gave evidence before the Board of Health on the subject of the scheme for extra-mural sepulture. But his success as an undertaker, which must have been very gratifying to him after losing many thousands of pounds as an omnibus proprietor, robbed him of posthumous fame by preventing his name becoming as much a household word as is Hansom’s. For several years after his pecuniary interest in omnibuses had ceased the vehicles which he had introduced into England were called “Shillibeers” more frequently than “Omnibuses,” but as soon as his “Shillibeer Funeral Coaches” became well advertised, people did not like to say that they were going for a ride in a Shillibeer, in case they might be misunderstood. So the word “Shillibeer,” which would in time have superseded “Omnibus,” and been spelt with a small “s,” was discarded, and is now almost forgotten. Shillibeer was also associated with Mr. G. A. Thrupp, the author of “The History of the Art of Coachbuilding,” Mr. John Peters, Mr. Robson, and Mr. Lewis Leslie in efforts to obtain a reduction of the heavy taxes on carriages. Mr. Thrupp has described Shillibeer to me as a big, energetic man, with a florid complexion, and brisk both in his movements and his speech. Shillibeer died at Brighton on August 22, 1866, aged sixty-nine, and it is not to our credit that we have done nothing to perpetuate the memory of one to whom we owe as delightful a form of cheap riding as could be desired. CHAPTER IV Introduction of steam omnibuses--The “Autopsy,” the “Era,” and the “Automaton”--Steam omnibuses a failure. Some years before Shillibeer introduced omnibuses into England, a number of experienced engineers had devoted themselves to the invention of steam carriages, and so satisfied were they with their achievements that they felt justified in predicting that horse-drawn vehicles were doomed. Once more, however, we see the truth of the saying that threatened institutions live long for the elimination of the horse is still an event of the distant future. Sir Charles Dance, Dr. Church, Colonel Maceroni, Messrs. Frazer, Goldsworthy Gurney, Hancock, Heaton, Maudsley, Ogle, Redmond, John Scott Russell, Squire, and Summers were the leading men interested in the building of steam carriages, but few of them produced vehicles which are deserving of being remembered. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Goldsworthy Gurney was the first to invent a steam carriage that ran with anything like success. His “Improved Steam Carriage”--an ordinary barouche drawn by an engine instead of horses--accomplished some very creditable journeys, including a run from London to Bath and back at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. [Illustration: GURNEY’S STEAM CARRIAGE.]