No trace of glass windows or complete doors seems to have existed up to 1650. But plain and rude as was the first coach of Louis XIV. it was in his reign, which lasted till 1715, that the most rapid progress was made in Coachbuilding. From the simple waggon-like skeleton body was developed by degrees a beautifully shaped, carved, and panelled piece of cabinet work [[Plate 17]], such as we can justly allow to be worthy the name of a coach, and this delighted our ancestors in the reign of Queen Anne. The credit of this transformation is equally due to Germany, Italy, France, and England; in each country improvements seem to have been made simultaneously.
The following is the description by a French author, M. Roubo, of the change that took place in Louis XIV.’s reign. The corbillards are the earliest French coaches of which we know the exact form. [[Plate 18].] These were straight-bottomed, open at the upper sides or quarters, which were furnished with curtains of cloth and leather; at first these were tied on, and would roll up when air was required; they had no doors, but were entered on either side by a moveable rail, over which a leather screen was hung. Behind these screens were seats, a little above the floor, where the pages of the owner of the carriage sat sideways. Sometimes there was a projection on either side called a boot, in which the pages sat.
The next coaches had curved bottoms, and were made with a wooden door half-way up the body, and the whole of the lower part of the body was panelled instead of being covered with cloth; this change is supposed to have taken place about 1660. As the coach began thus to be built in, carving, gilding, and painting were introduced, and beauty in shape increased. Next came the introduction of glass to the sides. A complete door reaching to the roof, with sliding glasses, followed.
There is very little mention made by historians of steel springs, but they were first applied to wheel carriages about 1670. At this period a vehicle drawn by men, and called a Brouette (or wheelbarrow) was introduced at Paris. [[Plate 19].] It was a sedan chair, to hold one person, with the door in front like the sedan chairs are now made, but on two wheels, about 3 ft. 6 in. high, and with two poles or shafts projecting forward, between which one man ran, whilst another pushed behind if the weight required it. There is a vehicle now much in use in Japan and China that seems a revival of the brouette; I think it is called a Jin-rik-sha.
The brouette was improved by Dupin, who applied two elbow-springs beneath the front, and attached them to the axletree by long shackles, the axletree working up and down in a groove beneath the inside seat. This is the first record of the application of steel springs to carriages. Many bath-chairs have springs from the body to the axletree in this method, and there is a tradition in the north of England that small broughams, on two wheels drawn by men, were used sixty years ago, as well as sedan chairs, for the conveyance of ladies to evening parties.
It has been said that a Mr Thomas brought springs