CHAPTER XII.

CHIT-CHAT.

A private omnibus-A miniature drag-The price of horses-Fifty years ago The world on wheels-Thompson's cyclometerThe Wealemefna-Nature knows best.

WHATEVER a coach may be outside, it must be far from pleasant riding inside on a fine day, as there is no carriage with which I am acquainted that possesses a more gloomy interior. In this respect the old coaches used to be far worse than those built at the present day; and when George III. was king, it required considerable agility and dexterity to mount the steps leading to the interior of a coach, the body of which was hung very high, particularly the mail coaches; and when the passenger had safely deposited him or herself on the hard, uncomfortable seats therein, the windows being high up in the doors, they found themselves, when the doors were closed, in semi-obscurity. Of course, so far as regards outward appearance, nothing can compare with a coach; the very shape of a coach conveys to one's mind the idea of four horses, and all the stylish, business-like paraphernalia of the road.

Yet in point of comfort for inside passengers a coach compares very unfavourably with a private omnibus, but an omnibus has no outside seat suitable for grooms or guard; besides which it cannot carry the same number of persons outside, and as for appearance, however well built, it cannot compare with a coach. Why this is, it is difficult to say; possibly our eyes have become so accustomed to a coach in connection with four horses, that we can tolerate no other vehicle, whilst an omnibus is associated in our minds with a public street conveyance, with a ride all the way from Charing Cross to the Bank for twopence, with such frequent stoppages to take up passengers that a very natural contempt for this pottering mode of progression fills our minds. However this may be, a coach, for the reasons I have named, is preferable to an omnibus ; but lately I saw a very excellent elevation drawing of what may be called a station brougham, patented by Messrs. Cockshoot & Co., of Manchester.

It is in my opinion a most excellent carriage, but with carriages and harness, as I have before remarked, one has to overcome very strong conservative prejudices which stand in the way of their adoption; the fact of being seated in any strange vehicle and forced to remain still, deprived of the power of volition, the observed of all observers, is particularly repugnant and distressing to the feelings of civilised mankind, especially to Englishmen. The first man who carried an umbrella must have been possessed of greater courage than the winner of a Victoria Cross, although the quality, or rather the nature of such courage was scarcely the same.

It is uncertain who the person was who evinced this remarkable resolution, although an umbrella was

To face page 465.

A MINIATURE DRAG.

465

first used in Edinburgh in 1780, but Swift says in the Tatler of October 17th, 1710:

The tucked-up seamstress walks with hasty strides,
Whilst streams run down her umbrella's sides.

But to go back to our subject, or something more nearly akin to it.

The carriage of which I have spoken is an excellent substitute for a coach, where a very light vehicle is required, and where the passengers are in all cases few in number; the only alteration that would be required to enable four horses to be driven with comfort would be to raise the box seat. I remember making a drawing of a carriage of this description, never supposing that it had already been done; this is one more proof that invention repeats itself, if proof were needed, but the instances of its having done so are so numerous that no evidence is needed of this fact by those who pass their time in planning and contriving. A simultaneous invention, or two minds conceiving exactly the same thing in exactly the same way, and even at exactly the same time, is not surprising when one comes to consider it; even poets and authors have given expression to exactly the same thought in exactly the same words, and yet it can be proved beyond doubt that neither one can have seen or read a word of the rival composition. A drawing can be had of the carriage to which I have made reference. For use in the country by a family composed of only a few members, and when it is desired occasionally to drive four horses, nothing could be more convenient, and even if a team be not driven it has the following advantages:

As a station carriage it has a considerable capacity