EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CARRIAGES
post-waggon at seven o'clock, which reaches Frankfort the next Friday."[1]
Those who preferred a private conveyance to these democratic vehicles, could hire carriages gorgeous with red velvet and drawn by horses making a fine appearance.[2]
When one hired a post-chaise for one's own use three horses at least were required by law. But if more than three had been taken for the first stretch, the extra number must be paid for until the entire journey was at an end. "Our vanity," says Cogan, who was going from Utrecht to Mainz, "induced us to take four horses" as far as Nimeguen. When they arrived at Nimeguen, says he, they "were obliged to continue, or at least to pay, for the same number; nor could we get ourselves purged of this superfluous horse until we arrived at Mentz. … We were first obliged to take four horses; and secondly obliged to pay twelve guilders for them; which together with the personal tax called passagie gelt amounts to about twenty pence per mile for horses alone."[3]
In most cities of the Low Countries a carriage of some sort was easily obtainable. But at Amsterdam the tourist could not ride in a coach "for fear of shaking the houses"[4] — unless he were a privileged person. At The Hague "very handsome hackney-coaches" were to be had for a shilling a drive, but chairs were lacking.[5]
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