(littera), a kind of vehicle borne upon shafts; anciently esteemed the most easy and genteel way of carriage. Du Cange derives the word from the barbarous Latin lectoria "straw or bedding for beasts." Others will rather have it come from lectus "bed;" there being ordinarily a quilt and a pillow to a litter in the same manner as to a bed.

Pliny calls the litter the traveller's chamber; it was much in use among the Romans, among whom it was borne by slaves kept for that purpose; as it still continues to be in the east, where it is called a palanquin—The Roman lectica, made to be borne by four men, was called tetraphorum; that borne by six hexaphorum; and that borne by eight octaphorum.

The invention of litters, according to Cicero, was owing to the kings of Bithynia; in the time of Tiberius they were become very frequent at Rome, as appears from Seneca; and even slaves themselves were borne in them, though never by more than two persons, whereas men of quality had six or eight.

Litter also denotes a parcel of dry old straw put on the floor of a horse's stall for him to lie down and rest upon. When a horse comes tired into a stable, fresh Litter has the virtue of making him stale immediately. This is known to be a very great advantage to a horse in a tired state; and when the litter is old and dirty, it never has any such effect upon him. If the owners knew how refreshing it is for a horse to discharge his urine on his return from labour, they would be more careful of giving them all means and occasions of it than they are. This stalling after fatigue prevents those obstructions in the neck of the bladder or urinary passages which horses are too subject to.