London in 1636, entitled “A Dialogue between a Coach and a Sedan-chair.” In the figure of the coach, as given in this tract [[Plate 13]], there are no leather braces marked, but the artist may have omitted what he considered unnecessary details, just as the artists of the present day, making a cheap view of a procession, will figure coaches and chariots of a shape that was obsolete fifty years ago, and even in pictorial journals that should draw better, the shape and details of carriages are unfaithfully rendered. Still, on the whole, we may consider this gives the coach of the period—a long body, a domed roof, the sides open, with curtains to draw down when requisite, no door, but a leather screen hung across the doorway, a very small coachman’s seat, and swingletrees for the horses’ traces.
In 1641, on November 25th, Charles I. passed through the City of London on his return from Scotland, and banqueted with the citizens at Guildhall. He was met at Kingsland by the city authorities and five hundred liverymen of the city companies on horseback, each with his footman and torch-bearer, and was accompanied to Whitehall after the banquet by the liverymen with their torch-bearers. It is worthy of notice that the king’s coach is the only coach spoken of, and that the King, Queen, the Elector Palatine, their brother-in-law, the Duchess of Richmond, and three of the royal children, seven persons in all, rode therein. Plate 14 shews a coach of this period.