diminish this cost coaches came into use. They were introduced in 1564 by a Dutch coachman of the Queen; but we are told "a coach was a strange monster in those days, and the sight of it put both man and horse into amazement; some said it was a great crabshell brought out of China, and some imagined it to be one of the pagan temples in which the cannibals worshipped the devil". But at length these doubts were cleared and coach-making became a substantial trade. So rapid was the increase of coaches that in 1601 an Act of Parliament was passed "to restrain the excessive and superfluous use of coaches within this realm". In spite of this innovation, no method could be devised which made locomotion pleasant through streets which were alternately torrents of dirty water finding their way to the Fleet ditch, and thick deposits of black mud, which furnished a ready weapon to any one who wished to express disapprobation. It is diflicult for us to picture London without either cabs or omnibuses.
The natural result of this state of things was that the Thames was the silent highway of London. One bridge only spanned it, and led to Southwark. Of this structure London was justly proud. It was sixty feet high, and thirty broad. It was built on twenty arches which were twenty feet distant from one another. The bridge was a continual street covered with houses on both sides, and consequently was so narrow that carts could scarcely pass one another. We may judge of the use made of the Thames as a thoroughfare by the fact that 2,000 wherries, plied by 3,000 watermen, were in constant employment for
