The million-peopled city
Garwood, John
1853
The Two Centuries of Hackney-coach continuance.
"The hackney-coachman after the Restoration is a per- sonage with a short whip and spurs; he has been compelled to mount one of his horses, that he may more effectually manage his progress through the narrow streets. His coach too is a small affair. describes the coaches as , . . 'so narrow, that I took them for sedans on wheels.' As the streets were widened, after the fire, the coachman was restored to the dignity of a seat on ... a box. This was a thing for use, and not for finery. Here, or in a leather pouch appended to it, the careful man carried a hammer, | |
168 | pincers, nails, ropes, and other appliances, in case of need; and the hammer-cloth was devised to conceal these necessary but unsightly remedies for broken wheels and shivered panels." [1] |
For some 200 years hackney-coaches had their day, but even those who are but young can remember their fall, till now they are wholly and probably for ever gone. During that long period, they "passed through all their phases of dirt and discomfort; the springs growing weaker, the 'iron ladder' by which we ascended into their ricketty capacious- ness more steep and more fragile, the straw filthier, the cushions more redolent of dismal smells,. the glasses less air-tight." [2] | |
Footnotes: [1] Knight's " London," vol. i., p. 29. [2] Ibid, p. 31 |