Highways and Horses (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 edition. Excerpt: ... CHIT-CHAT. A private omnibus--A miniature drag--The price of horses--Fifty years ago--The world on wheels--Thompson's cyclometer--The 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...