And Mr. Shillibeer, of the City Road, the inventor of the patent funeral carriage, in his evidence before the Board of Health on the general scheme for extra-mural sepulture, incidentally mentions that he
"Had had much experience in cheapening vehicular transit, having originated and established the Omnibus in England."—Report, p. 124., 8vo. ed.
Arun.
Havock.—Havock is a term in our ancient English military laws: the use of it was forbidden among the soldiery by the army regulations of those days; so in the Ordinances des Batailles in the ninth year of Richard II, art. x.:
"Item, que nul soit si hardi de crier havoick sur peine d'avoir la teste coupe."
This was properly a punishable offence in soldiers; havock being the cry of mutual encouragement to general massacre, unlimited slaughter, that no quarter should be given, &c. A tract on "The office of the constable and Mareshall in the tyme of Warre," contained in the black book of the Admiralty, has this passage:
"Also, that no man be so hardy to crye havock upon peyne that he that is begynner shall be deede therefore: and the remanent that doo the same, or follow, shall lose their horse and harneis ... and his body in prison at the king's will."
And this appears to answer well to the original term, which is taken from the ravages committed by a troop of wild beasts, wolves, lions, &c., falling on a flock of sheep. But some think it was originally a hunting term, importing the letting loose a pack of hounds. Shakspeare combines both senses:
"Cry havock! and let slip the dogs of war."
In a copy of Johnson's Dictionary before me, I find