EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CARRIAGES
gay and easy gilt coach or chariot, and a coachman, with a good pair of horses, for twelve livres, which is about ten shillings a day, to attend you from seven in the morning till midnight, and to carry you to Versailles, etc. This is certainly the best way, because their hackney-coaches are dirty and mean, and few people of any fashion, especially strangers, either use them or walk much in the streets. It is to be observed that you must sign a contract for your coach or chariot, to have it a month as your own; the lawyer or notary draws the contract by the coach-lender's orders, and you pay five shillings for his fee and one shilling for his clerk, who attends you to get it signed. This contract the coachman carries in his pocket, to entitle him to drive you out of town to Versailles, etc., for without it the coach is not privileged to carry you out of the gates of Paris.[1] But tho' you contract for a month for the sake of this privilege, yet you may give up your coach at the end of ten days, or a fortnight, paying for the days you have had it; and a fortnight will be long enough to carry you to most of the places you want to see in and about Paris."[2]
For going short distances, particularly when attending a social gathering in full dress, the tourist in more than one Continental city found a sedan chair useful. But, obviously, this was a convenience of very limited range.
II
Italy
From what has been said of the Italian roads it is obvious that none but a very substantial conveyance could be trusted to bring the traveler safely to his destination. What the carriages were like we learn from many descriptions. Now and then, as in France, the tourist ventured to travel in his own private vehicle. In such a case, Baretti recommends that "a traveller ought to have his post-chaise not only strongly built to resist the many stony roads in
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