This is the substance of the Act before us; but it may here be observed, that in the 10th year of the Queen, 1711, one hundred more Chairs were added by Statute, subject to the same regulations as the rest, being found not only convenient but necessary; as the number of Coaches, consistently with Public Faith, could not be enlarged till the year 1715, when the old term of twenty-one years should have expired.
Before all the provisions in the Act of the year 1710, referred to the future period of 1715, could take place, a demise of the Crown intervened, A. D. 1714, by which all such clauses, which extended to a future time, were of course become a nullity.
By Act 12 George I. chap. 12, the number of Chairs was raised to 400, on account of the increase of Buildings Westward.[374]
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The Hammer Cloth.
To shew how trifling, though necessary conveniences, arise to great and expensive luxuries, let us remark the original insignificant appendage of what we call the Hammer Cloth. It was requisite that the Coachman should have a few implements in case of accidents, or a sudden and little repair was wanting to the Coach; for which purpose he carried a hammer with a few pins, nails, &c. with him, and placed them under his seat, made hollow to hold them, and which from thence was called the Coach Box; and, in a little time, in order to conceal this unsightly appearance, a cloth was thrown over the box and its contents, of which a hammer was the chief, and thence took the name of the Hammer-Cloth. This is my idea of the etymon of these two common terms. And here again it can but be observed that this little appendage is now become the most striking and conspicuous ornament of the equipage.