Little bands of travellers were made up in the City of London, and started in company through the wilds of Tyburn to reach Oxford, or some of the northern towns. Such caravans continually passed along the Bayswater Road or Knightsbridge.
It is difficult to realise what these journeys meant, when every necessary or comfort the wayfarer required had to be carried on his shoulders, or borne in his pack. The modern match was represented by flint and steel; money was often in specie or in kind. The wretched traveller must take food for several days, or go provided with bow and arrow, spear and cooking utensils, to kill and cook his food, or else eat it raw. Materials for a bed had to be carried if he would have one, and a tent if he objected to sleeping in the open. But these evils were often mitigated by the kindly hospitality in the age of chivalry, and which extended into the fifteenth century.
Rough waggons came more into use, but the pack-horse long remained the chief mode of conveyance. Illustrations of the time show a cart resembling our present miller’s van in shape, drawn by two horses tandem-fashion, but led, not driven. Large trains of attendants were more than ever in request, for robbery became worse than before.
In the Earl of Northumberland’s Household Book an account is given of his moving his possessions from place to place; for in the olden days habitations, if a man possessed more than one, were not furnished, and not only personal effects had to be transferred, but beds and tables as well.
Even kings when going from one place to another took their furniture. The most wonderful thing is how dexterously these removals were accomplished, especially at the French Court, which, at the time of Catharine de Medici and subsequently, was ever on the move, travelling between Paris and the many castles on the Loire. The coach (really a room on wheels) was for the use of the King and Queen, and other conveyances, numbering a hundred or more, followed in the wake.
Many records survive from the Tudor period of State ceremonials in which the old horse-litter played a conspicuous part. Catharine of Arragon entered London in one of these, when she came to England to wed Prince Arthur, the elder brother of Henry VIII., who died soon after the marriage. There are so many people in England who remember the magnificent, and withal comfortable, processions for the marriage festivities of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, the Jubilee processions of Queen Victoria, and the Coronation of our reigning Monarch and his Consort, that the following entries of arrangements for the reception of Princess Catharine four hundred years ago, made in the Duke of Northumberland’s Household Book, may be of interest as a contrast:
“Item, That a rich litter be ready to receive and convey the said Princess to the door of the Church of St. Paul’s.
“Item, That three horsemen in side-saddle and harness all of one suit, be arrayed by the Master of the Queen’s Horse to follow next to the said Princesses litter.
“Item, That a fair palfrey with a pillion richly arrayed and led in hand for the said Princess, do follow next unto the said horsemen.
“Item, That five charres diversely apparelled for the ladies and gentlemen, be ready at the same time at the same Tower, whereof one of the chief must be richly apparelled and garnished for the said Princess, and the other four to serve such ladies as be appointed by the Queen’s Chamberlain.”