" When came to the crown A coach in England then was scarcely known."[1]  UNTIL late in the reign of there were no car- riages for riding of any description, traversing the streets of London;, and it was not till the accession of that their use became established. For long after their introduc- tion, it was considered a mark of effeminacy to patronize them. " 'Twas then held as great a disgrace for a young gentleman to be seen riding in the street in a coach, as it would now for such an one to be seen in the streets in a petticoat.... ; so much is the fashion of the times now altered." [2]  Nor was a coach then by any means the luxury that it is now. For London then, like cities on the Conti- nent still, was without trottoirs. "The middle of a paved street was generally occupied with the channel; and the sides of the carriage-way were full of absolute holes, where the ricketty coach was often stuck as in a quagmire. Some of the leading streets, even to the time of ., were almost as impassable as the avenues of a new American town.[3]  The only road even to the Houses of Parliament, but a century since, was through streets " which were in so miserable a state, that faggots were thrown into the ruts on the days on which the king went to Parliament, to render the passage of the State coach more easy."[4]  We scarcely

" Let others in the jolting coach confide, Or in the leaky boat the

Thames divide

, Or box'd within the chair, contemn the street, And trust their safety to another's feet: Still let me walk."

[1] Taylor's "Thief." 1622.

[2] Aubrey's "Life of Sir Philip Sidney," p. 554.

[3] "Knight's " London," i., 19..

[4] Smith's "Westminster," p. 262.