with it; for, whereas, before, coaches could not be had but at greater rates, now a man may have one much cheaper."
Charles I. did not, however, regard hackney-coaches with favour, and endeavoured to check Captain Baily's enterprise by granting to Sir Sanders Duncomb the sole right to let on hire sedan chain, which, until then, were unknown in England. The patent stated:—
"Whereas the streets of our cities of London and Westminster and their suburbs are of late so much encumbered with the unnecessary multitude of coaches, that many of our subjects are thereby exposed to great danger and the necessary use of carts and carriages for provisions much hindered : and Sir Sanders Duncomb's petition representing that in many parts beyond sea, people are much carried in chairs that are covered, whereby few coaches are used among them : wherefore we have granted to him the sole privilege to use, let or hire a number of the said covered chairs for fourteen years."
Sedan chairs did not prove to be formidable rivals to the hackney-coaches, but they added considerably to the congestion of the streets. For
