The million-peopled city
Garwood, John
1853
The Introduction of Hackney Coaches kept at Inns, in the Reign of James I.
Still further mortification was soon to attend the retainers of exclusive luxuries in coaches. At the close of the reign of ., in , the present system of hackney coaches was introduced. It was then no longer necessary to pur- chase a coach, in order to enjoy its advantages. Those whose means quite precluded them from such a cost, might now for a very small sum hire the accommodation. Pride rather than convenience, however, was supposed to be the main motive, for some period, to the use of the hired carriage. It was then accounted as something very grand to ride in a coach; so that when " two leash of oyster-wives hired one to carry them to the green goose fair at Stratford the Bow, as they were hurried betwixt Aldgate and Mile- end, they were so be-madam'd, be-mistress'd, and ladyfied by the beggars, that the foolish women began to swell with a proud supposition of imaginary greatness, and gave all their money to the mendicanting canters." [1] "Proud mistresses rode, grinning and deriding at the people crowded and shrowded up against stalls and shops."[2] | |
Footnotes: [1] "World Runs on Wheels," p. 239. [2] Evelyn. |