coach-building talent was required, and to work
it a horse of exceptional strength and breeding was needful, but when
complete this equipage had a distinction never surpassed. During this
period the pair-horse "mail phaeton" was introduced, and has enjoyed a
long period of popularity. As a travelling carriage with the needful
appointments the "britzska," having a straight body with ogee curves at
front and back, with single folding hood, and hung on C springs, was a
distinctive and popular feature among carriages of the period from 1824
until after 1840. Of two-wheeled vehicles the "stanhope" and "tilbury"
gigs, the "dog cart" and "tandem cart," came into use during these
years, and have afforded facilities of agreeable locomotion to many
thousands of people at a moderate cost. But the greatest improvement of
this period was the introduction of the "brougham." Several attempts had
been made to arrive at a light carriage of this description, but it was
not until 1839 that a carriage was produced to a design adopted by Lord
Brougham, and called after him. The "victoria" was known as a carriage
for public hire in continental cities for several years before being
adopted as a fashionable carriage by the wealthy classes. In 1869 the
prince of Wales brought one from Paris of the cab shape, and Baron
Rothschild brought one from Vienna of the square shape, examples
speedily followed. In various elegant and artistic forms, either as an
elliptic or C spring, it has since become a most popular and convenient
carriage.

Public carriages for hire, or hackney (q.v.) coaches, were first
established in London in 1625. In 1635 the number was restricted to
fifty. Still they increased, notwithstanding the opposition of the court
and king, who thought they would break up the roads, till in 1650 there
were as many as 300. In Paris they were introduced during the minority
of Louis XIV. by Nicholas Sauvage, who lived in the rue St Martin at the
sign of St Fiacre, from which circumstance hackney carriages in Paris
have since been called _fiacres_. In 1694 the number in London had
increased to 700. Many of these were old private coaches of the nobility
and gentry, and it was not until 1790 that coaches on a smaller scale
were built specially for hackney purposes (see COACH).

We are told that in 1673 there were stage coaches from London to York,
to Chester and to Exeter, having each forty horses on the road, and
carrying each six inside-passe