Travelling carriages had now become very much in demand, and were taken on the Continent. Some noblemen and gentlemen began to travel abroad every year. The fittings had become more elaborate. It was usual to cord the =C= springs from the top to the bottom to strengthen them, and provide against the jolts of very bad roads; so that, if one or two of the steel plates broke, the cording would still hold all together. Also long ropes were provided, extending beneath the body from the front to the hind springs, to support it should the body-loops give way under the quantity of luggage stowed in boxes, and imperials, and cap-cases. A dragstaff was provided to prevent the coach sliding back when the horses rested in going up hill, and two drag-chains and shoes against going down hill. Notwithstanding these precautions it became usual, at the top of the Alpine passes, from the courier who attended the traveller to procure from the post-houses two sabots or logs of wood hollowed out to fit a wheel, and these were substituted for the iron shoes during the long and steep descent of the Alpine mountains. In 1824 a carriage was introduced which has become of almost universal use--the Pony phaeton. In that year King George IV. desired a low phaeton, and one was built for him of a shape and size in which there has been little alteration during the fifty years that have since passed away. It was a cab shape, half caned, with a skeleton bottom side, hung upon four elliptical springs, with crane ironwork back and front, two elbow-wings, bow-steps, and large dasher, and it was drawn by two ponies; the wheels were only 21 and 33 in. high. Another carriage had been introduced from Germany, called a Droitska, an open carriage with a hood, on a perch, and with =C= springs. The peculiarity was that the body hung very near the perch; the place for the legs was on either side of the perch, so that the seat was only 12 in. above the hind axle-tree; the chief merit of the Droitska consisted in its lightness compared with Briskas and Barouches, and the shortness of the whole vehicle. In appearance it resembled a _pilentum_, and it is probable that Mr David Davies took his idea of a _pilentum_ from the shape of the Droitska. Mr David Davies, a Coachmaker of Albany Street, and afterwards of Wigmore Street, had considerable inventive faculties. He originated a number of vehicles, the Pilentum phaeton, about 1834, which was an open carriage with the doorway very near the ground, the driving seat was also low, the whole hung upon elliptical springs, and built of different sizes, to carry four or six persons, and adapted for one or two horses.