Hackney coaches were established in Edinburgh in 1673, when the number was only twenty. Public fiacres were introduced at Warsaw in 1778. In Amsterdam the coaches have no wheels; nor have they any at Petersburg in the winter—they are used as sledges.
The state-coach of the city of London is a species of heir-loom, or the hereditary property of the city; it is a very large and apparently extremely heavy machine, but superbly decorated with large panels of crystal glass, richly gilt, and elegantly painted with several appropriate designs. In one of the centre panels, among a group of figures, is one supporting a shield bearing the inscription “Henry Fitzalwin, 1189,” in the old English, character; therefore we conjecture that the coach was constructed at a period coeval with the above date.
SADDLES, BRIDLES, AND STIRRUPS.
In the earliest ages it was customary to ride without either bridles or saddles, if the poet be worthy of credit; for we observe Lucan, speaking of the Massillians, says:
“Without a saddle the Massilians ride,
And with a bending switch their horses guide.”
They regulated the motion of the horses by a switch and their voice. It has been observed, that the case was the same with the Numidians, Getulians, Libyans, as well as most of the Grecian people. As the reason of the thing appears to point out the superior expediency of a bridle, they afterwards came into fashion among the Greeks, which they called lupi; because it is said the bit of the bridle bore a resemblance to the teeth of the wolf, whence Lucan says of it:—
“Nor with the sharper bits
Manage th’ unruly horse.”
In the east it would appear that bridles, at least, were used at an early period. For we have a great number of texts in the Scripture, which definitely express as much: in the Psalms, and likewise in Proverbs, the name and application of the bridle is often particularly mentioned, and more frequently alluded to. Virgil, indeed, says, referring to very early times:
“The Lapithæ of Pelethronium rode
With bridles first,—and what their use was show’d.”