Page:Omnibuses and Cabs.djvu/215

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Hackney-Coaches
195

energetic member of the newly established police force appeared on the scene and stopped the fight. Only for a time though, for one of the men bundled the boys into his own hackney-coach and told them to fight it out there. They did; the sport-loving many-caped coachmen crowding round and watching them through the windows.

Early in the nineteenth century a more lightly built hackney-coach, named a "chariot," which was introduced many years previously, became popular. It carried two inside passengers and had room for a third in the box seat The driver usually rode on the near-side horse, but some men drove from the box. In 1814 there were two hundred licensed chariots in London, and for a few years the number increased rapidly. Some of the chariots licensed in 1815 had accommodation for three inside passengers.

With the young bloods of the day hackney-coachmen were great favourites, chiefly because they looked on with marked approval while their fares wrenched off a knocker, assaulted a policeman, or kissed a pretty girl. Moreover, their memory was most defective when necessary.

One night a hackney-coach man was called to the