The Crest or Arms in the Centre, is an elegant ornament for the Head of the Handle.
A Boot or Budget fixed on the fore Carriage between the front Springs is useful to carry Horse Cloths, Luggage, &c.
Hind Standards are very useful for town work, to keep the Horses and Pole of other Carriages from injuring your Hind Pannels; but as they are a heavy weight, they should be made to take off for the country.
A Dickey Coach Box is the most convenient; it is less impediment to the view of those who are inside the Carriage, and more comfortable to the Coachman. They should be fixed on the Boot, and entirely detached from the Body. Let it be large enough to contain Two persons. It is not quite so easy as the Body; but for those who love Air and Exercise, and a view of the Country, it is in Summer the pleasantest place.
The Seat thereof to hold Two persons, should be thirty Inches wide and twenty Inches deep, inside measurement. The Cushion should be of equal thickness, and not higher on the Driving side, as it is in a Gig, because when only the Coachman is on the Box, he should sit in the middle of it. There should be a Pocket on each side in the lining, for putting Tickets in.
This kind of Coach Box may be so made as to take off, and fix on behind the Carriage. Under the Seat, for the Coachman, should drop in a Box to serve as a Tool Budget, and contain a few spare Bolts, Nuts, Linch-Pins, Nails, a Wrench, a Winch that will fit your axle, Hammer, Chisel, a Pair of Pincers, &c.; by help of which, a trifling accident on the Road may be remedied without delay.
Take care that your Coach Box is strongly and properly fixed on, and frequently examine the state of the Bolts and Nuts, &c. For want of sufficient strength, or of the efficient state of the supports to it, many dreadful accidents have happened; one of which we relate as a warning:—
“On Tuesday morning last, while the Coachman and the Footman, in the service of F. P. Ripley, Esq., 12, Woburn Place, Russell Square, were driving their Master’s carriage along Tavistock Place, Tavistock Square, the box on which they were sitting broke down, and precipitated them to the ground. The carriage wheels passed over the right leg of the Coachman and the left breast of the Footman. They were conveyed to their master’s with the greatest alacrity, where they received such treatment as their situations required. The coachman’s leg is bruised and lacerated extremely. The footman, on being raised from the ground, was excessively convulsed. We are sorry to add there are no hopes of his recovery.”—Times, June 2, 1826.
Spikes to fix on the Hind Standards.
These spikes may be so contrived as to be put on and off very easily, with Three Nuts, in as few minutes;—the Footman’s Step should be fixed on in the same manner.