as we have observed in the Encyclopaedia, is a very modern invention, if by that word be meant a covered carriage suspended on springs. We learn, indeed, from the laboursious researches of Professor Beckmann, that coaches of some kind were known in the beginning of the 16th century; but they were used only by women of the first rank, for men thought it disgraceful to ride in them. At that period, when the electors and princes did not choose to be present at the meetings of the States, they excused themselves by informing the emperor that their health would not permit them to ride on horseback; and it was considered as a point established, that it was unbecoming for them to ride like women. It is certain, however, that, about the end of the 15th century, the emperors, kings, and princes, began to employ covered carriages or journeys, and afterwards on public solemnities.

The wedding carriage of the first wife of the emperor Leopold, who was a Spanish princess, cost, together with the harness, 38,000 florins. The coaches used by that emperor are thus described by Kink: "In the imperial coaches no great magnificence was to be seen; they were covered over with red cloth and black nails. The harnesses were black, and in the whole work there was no gold. The panels were of glass, and on this account they were called the imperial glass coaches. On festivals the harness was ornamented with rich silk fringes. The imperial coaches were distinguished only by their having leather traces; but the ladies in the imperial suite were obliged to be contented with carriages, the traces of which were made of ropes." At the magnificent court of Duke Ernest Augustus of Hanover, there were in the year 1681 fifty gilt coaches with six horses each. So early did Hanover begin to surpass other cities in the number of its carriages. The first time that ambassadors appeared in coaches on a public solemnity was at the imperial commission held at Erfurt in 1613 respecting the affair of Juliers.

In the history of France we find many proofs that at Paris, in the 14th, 15th, and even 16th centuries, the French monarchs rode commonly on horse, the servants of the court on mules, and the princesses, together with the principal ladies, sometimes on asses. Persons of the first rank often sat behind their equerry, and the horse was often led by servants. Carriages, however, of some kind appear to have been used very early in France. An ordinance of Philip the Fair, issued in 1294 for suppressing luxury, and in which the citizens wives are forbidden to use carriages (coeurs), is still preserved. Under Francis I or rather about 1550, somewhat later, there were in Paris for the first time only three coaches.

The oldest carriages used by the ladies in England were known under the now forgotten name of whirligotes. When Richard II, towards the end of the 14th century, was obliged to fly before his rebellious subjects, he and all his followers were on horseback; his mother only, who was indisposed, rode in a carriage. This, however, became afterwards somewhat unsatisfactory, when that monarch's queen, Anne, the daughter of the Emperor Charles IV, showed the English ladies how gracefully and conveniently she could ride on a side saddle. Whirligotes were laid aside, therefore, except at coronations and other public solemnities. Coaches were first known in England about the year 1500, and, as Stow says, were introduced from Germany by Fitzalan, earl of Arundel. In the year 1598, when the English ambassador came to Scotland, he had a coach with him. Anderson places the period when coaches began to be in common use about the year 1605. The celebrated duke of Buckingham, the unworthy favorite of two kings, was the first person who rode with a coach and six horses, in 1619. To ridicule this new pomp, the earl of Northumberland put eight horses to his carriage.

Respecting the progress of luxury with regard to coaches, the reader will find much curious information in the first volume of Professor Beckmann's History of Cobalt Inventions. It is perhaps one of the most entertaining articles in that very learned work. The author, however, with all his labour has not been able to ascertain the country in which coaches hung on springs were first used; but he seems inclined to give the credit of the invention to Hungary.