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[-243-]
CHAPTER VIII.
PUBLIC VEHICLES
Omnibuses Coaches Cabs Vehicles of various kinds.
NOTHING more forcibly strikes the mind of a stranger on his first visit to
the metropolis, than the immense number of vehicles he sees plying in all
directions in the leading streets. Where they all come from, or how they all
find sufficient employment, are matters which next engage his attention and fill
him with surprise. In passing through Fleet Street, Cheapside, and some of the
other principal thoroughfares, the entire open space before the pedestrian, with
the exception of the pavement on either side, appears on some occasions as if it
were blockaded for the purpose of impeding the advance of [-244-]
some hostile army.
Sometimes the vehicles are so densely wedged together, that if, as I had once
occasion to remark in a previous work, one could walk on horses' backs, and on
the tops of waggons, omnibuses, coaches, cabs, and so forth, without the risk of
slipping his foot, he might proceed two or three hundred yards without once
touching the causeway. The progress made on such occasions by those who are
inside of the vehicles, must, it is needless to say, be necessarily slow. I have
often seen fifty or sixty vehicles of all kinds, compelled to come to a dead
stand of some minutes' duration, in consequence of the interruption offered by
one of the number. The time which is, on some occasions, required to pass along
Cheapside, though only about a quarter of a mile in length, in any two or
four-wheeled vehicle, is from fifteen to twenty minutes. Those therefore with
whom time is an object, should always employ their legs instead of vehicles,·
no matter of what kind, in passing along that crowded part of the metropolis.
The noise which is heard in the leading [-245-]
thoroughfares of London, where omnibuses, coaches, cabs, and other vehicles thus
prevent each other proceeding on their journey, is sometimes of a very
disagreeable kind. I refer to the altercations and recriminations which take
place among the drivers and conductors. The language used by these persons is
not at any time particularly pleasing to "ears polite:" on such occasions
it is peculiarly coarse. They swear at each other at a furious rate, and always
at the full stretch of their voices, which as every one who has been in
London will bear me witness, are of first-rate capabilities. I have a shrewd notion that were Stentor himself alive, he would have the mortification of
seeing,
or rather hearing. himself surpassed in the power of his lungs, by the London
"vehicle-men" of the present day. But their achievements in the way of
abusing one another are still more extraordinary. They pour out the richest
vituperation on each other without a seeming effort. To talk abuse of the
coarsest and heartiest kind appears to be a matter of course to them. Cobbett
used to be considered [-246-]
pre-eminent among his contemporaries for the richness and
copiousness of his abuse. Among contemporary writers, I believe, he was entitled
to the palm of distinction in that way. But if cabmen and omnibusmen were to be
taken into the account, Cobbett's abuse was unworthy of the name. In the art of
vituperation, he could, as compared with this class of persons, be considered as
at best but a mere pigmy. One of them would speak in a couple of minutes much
more real genuine abuse, than ever Cobbett, even in his happiest moods, could
have written in a whole "Register."
It is worthy of observation that in all those cases in
which cab and omnibus-men vituperate each other i whether that vituperation
proceeds from the one fancying that the "vekel," as they themselves
say, of the other, interferes with the progress of their "'un," or
from any other cause, it is I say worthy of observation, that notwithstanding
all their seeming violence of manner, they never come to blows. A fight between
two omnibus or other vehicle-men, is one of the rarest sights in London; and yet
no [-247-] stranger could pass down Cheapside, or any other leading
thoroughfare, without feeling a conviction in his own mind from the loud
altercations and vehement manner of the parties, that the abuse that is going on
must end in down-right blows in at least forty out of fifty instances. To
pull one another's nasal organs, to extinguish each other's luminaries, and to
do sundry other things to which I dare not allude, are among their favourite
threats. And yet they never, or at least not in one case out of a million,
either lay their hands or their whips on one another. They are the best
specimens of genuine Bobadils that ever existed.
The omnibuses are of recent origin; they date no farther
back than twelve or fourteen years. They are clumsy vehicles, but extremely
convenient. They are licensed to carry twelve persons inside; a few of them are
licensed to carry fourteen. They have no outside passengers, except in very rare
cases; and these are always when the vehicle plies to some place in the suburbs.
The omnibuses usually measure about twelve feet in length, by four in [-248-]
breadth, and three and a half in height. There is a cushioned seat on each side,
with a range of small panes of glass, through which the passengers can see
everything in the streets as the vehicle wends its way. The conductor or guard,
stands on a sort of step at the entrance, about a foot lower than the bottom of
the vehicle. The fare is exceedingly cheap for those who have to go any
distance. From Paddington to the neighbourhood of the Mansion House, and the
Royal Exchange (which must be a distance little short of five miles), the fare
is only sixpence. In returning the same distance, the charge is also a sixpence;
indeed, in no instance is the charge for going from one part of the metropolis
to another more than a sixpence. You are charged, however, the same sum though
you only go a distance of a hundred yards. This arrangement is, perhaps,
necessary; there would be no chance in such a place as London, of satisfactorily
conducting what is called an omnibus business, on a scale of charges varying
with the distance. The omnibuses stop to take up passengers in any part of town,
and they [-249-]
also stop to put them down, wherever the
passengers may wish, as a Yankee would say, to be "deposited."
Nothing therefore could be more convenient than these vehicles. They ply in
every part of London; only each one always adheres to a certain line, and that
line as a matter of course is one of the leading thoroughfares. Strangers must
be struck with the rapidity, notwithstanding what Sir Robert Peel would call
their "ponderous appearance," with which they proceed along the
streets: the horses are often at a hard gallop. Omnibuses always drive as
rapidly in the heart of London, as a stage coach does in the open country,
except in those cases, formerly referred to, in which the streets are blocked up
by vast numbers of vehicles all meeting in one place. And yet notwithstanding the
amazing rapidity with which the omnibuses proceed through the streets of the
metropolis, comparatively few accidents occur. This is owing to the superior
skill of the drivers. It is surprising how closely they run to each other, and
how near they often are in running over passengers; and yet without any accident
occurring, [-250-] The most experienced drivers of coaches in country towns,
could not drive one of these omnibuses a single day along the streets of London, at the rate at which they are usually driven, without the occurrence of
some disasater.
It is a hint which may be of no small advantage to
those who visit the metropolis, that when intending to travel by an omnibus from
one part of town to another, they should always choose those omnibuses which
contain the greatest number of passengers. This is the only way to make sure of
an expeditious journey. Though the law only allows them to stop three minutes,
for the purpose of resting the horses in one or two places in the course of a
journey of four or :five miles, the drivers under one pretext or other always
contrive to make pauses on the way, until they have picked up a sufficient
number of passengers. In cases where they had only two or three passengers, I
have often known them take a quarter of an hour to go a quarter of a mile.
And yet you have no remedy. They will not allow you to go out and walk, [-251-]
or take any other vehicle, though you may not have been in two minutes,
without paying the full fare. As for remonstrances, you might as soon address
these to the horses. You will only get the worst language and most ruffianly
treatment in return for any representations, no matter how mild, you may make on
the subject of the unjustifiable delay the drivers are causing you in your
journey. It is true, that you may summon the proprietors to the police-offices,
and they will be fined in a penalty, varying according to circumstances, from 1l to
5l but this is attended with a world of inconvenience; and the fellows
who conduct the vehicles, know this so well, that they always calculate on
escaping the legal consequences of the vexation and delay they occasion to
passengers. But if you go into an omnibus which is nearly full of passengers,
you are sure, always excepting where there are unavoidable obstructions. to get
expeditiously to your· journey's end. Having got their complement of
passengers, or very nearly so, the drivers make no pauses on the way.
[-252-] A more desperate and reckless set of fellows than those
connected with the London omnibuses, never existed in a civilized country. They
are almost daily brought up to the police-offices for assaults on passengers
who remonstrate with them for their delays, or for the offensive language which
the least circumstance causes them to use; but the examples which have been made
in this way by fine and imprisonment, seem to have no beneficial effect on
others. Alderman Sir M. Wood has for three or four successive sessions brought
in a bill to Parliament, with the view of abating the omnibus nuisance; but from·
some cause or other it has always been lost. In the meantime, a partial
diminution of the evil has been effected by some private gentlemen having
entered into a partnership among themselves to run a certain number of omnibuses
in different parts of town. Hence, from the choice of servants which has been
made, civility to passengers, and the avoidance of all unnecessary delays, are
insured.. The omnibuses of these gentlemen are painted in a peculiar way, and [-253-]
the servants wear livery round their hats, to distinguish
their vehicles from others. Whenever a stranger sees one of these omnibuses he
should give it the preference, if he have any regard to expedition and civility
of treatment. A project was some time since set on foot for forming a large
joint-stock association, with a capital, if I remember rightly, of 50,000l., to
run 500 omnibuses; but as I have not heard anything of it for some time, I
suppose it must be abandoned.
The entire number of omnibuses which are now constantly
plying in the streets of London, is between 600 and 700. Those which ply in the
suburbs are about 200 in number. It is impossible to calculate accurately the
number of passengers who travel from one part of town to another, or from the
suburbs to town, in the course of a day, because the number varies considerably
with the state of the weather, and the comparatively crowded or thin state of
London at different times. Rainy days, or very hot weather; anything, in other
words, which makes people prefer riding to walking, [-254-]
are
best for the omnibus proprietors. The calculations I have made from the best
data which are accessible, would give an average of passengers, taking one day
with another, to each omnibus, of 120. Supposing then the number of omnibuses to
be between the numbers I have already stated; namely, 650, that will make
the number of passengers 78,000. This is exclusive of the passengers who travel
in the omnibuses which run in the suburbs. The price charged in town for omnibus
travelling being sixpence, would give for each omnibus 3l. per day; or for the
entire number 1950l.
The omnibus business is not a profitable one. I do not
believe that one proprietor out of five gets it to pay the expenses; and yet
they cling to it as long as they can, always hoping it will improve. The
expenses are very great. First there is the price of the omnibus, which varies
from 120l. to 150l. Then there are the expenses of the horses, which are very
great in London; next come the expenses of driver and conductor to each vehicle.
Then again there is [-255-] the duty; and lastly, there are tear and wear, fines, and
other incidentals. As a pecuniary speculation, the running of omnibuses will
never answer at the present charges, and the spirit of competition is so great
among the proprietors, and the public have been so long accustomed to sixpenny
fares, that better prices will never be procured.
The number of Hackney coaches which constantly ply in
the metropolis is about 600. The rate of fares the drivers charge those who
employ them, is one shilling per mile. That is the lowest fare they ever charge
under any circumstances; if you only go twenty yards in a coach, the charge
will be the same; but if you employ it for a greater distance than a mile, then
you may count on half-miles in payment. A single yard over the mile subjects the
party to the charge of an additional sixpence. All the London hackney coaches
are licensed to carry four passengers; some of them, however, being old
carriages formerly used by noblemen and gentlemen, are sufficiently large to
accommodate six; and the driver rarely objects to the [-256-] party engaging the
coach, squeezing as many into it as possible. He makes no additional charge,
because he is aware the law, instead of sustaining his claim were he to make it,
would subject him to a penalty for carrying more than his complement.
There is no greater annoyance to a stranger in going
from one part of London to another, than that to which he is subjected by the
overcharges of coachmen. They almost invariably overcharge strangers; whom their
practised eye enables them to discover at once. They calculate, in the first
place, on the stranger's ignorance of the distances between one place and
another in London; or where they suppose that the overcharge is so glaring that
it cannot by possibility escape the party against whom it is made, they
calculate on the improbability of his putting himself to the trouble of
summoning the proprietors to a police-office or to Somerset House, for the mere
purpose of recovering a sixpence or shilling. Experience has taught them that in
these calculations they are right. For one person whom they have [-257-]
overcharged, who summons them before the magistrates for the imposition, there
are at least a hundred who suffer them to escape. Hence, as the penalty, when
they are convicted, seldom exceeds twenty shillings, they find that the number
of cases in which they escape, leaves them after all the convictions that take
place, a considerable premium on their fraudulent practices.
Decidedly the best way to guard against the impositions
of hackney coachmen in London, is to tell them to drive you a certain distance;
say two or three miles, as the case may be, in the direction of the place to
which you are going. In that case, you shut their mouths against all pretexts
for cheating you. When you ask them to drive you to a certain place instead of
a certain distance, they will stoutly maintain that the distance is as much
greater than it really is, as will correspond to the amount of which they mean
to defraud you. When you adopt the course I have recommended, they never dare to
ask more than the legal fare. To be sure they will look sulky, [-258-] and greet
your ears with an under growl or two; but never mind that; you have paid
your proper fare, and all you have now to do is to walk yourself away as
comfortably as possible, to the place of your intended destination.
But it may happen it often does happen in the case of
strangers that you have not even an idea of the distance at which the
part of town to which you are going, is from the place whence you are to start.
In that case, your better way would be, before calling a coach, to inquire
of some one almost anybody you meet in the streets will tell you what
the distance is. That ascertained, and if you have luggage which renders it
necessary that you should be carried to the very spot, your better plan would be
to bargain with a coachman for the fare, before you go into the vehicle. He will
probably ask you a half more than the regular fare; but when he sees you
know what the legal charge is, he will take it rather than let you employ some
rival coachman.
[-259-] It is of great importance I should mention here, that
strangers, and even persons who have been long resident in London, are
often "taken in" when they have luggage with them, owing to their not
expressly stipulating that it shall be included in the charge made for
themselves. Several cases have come under my own personal observation one,
indeed, occurred recently to myself in which parties have made an agreement
with a coachman to be taken to a certain place for a certain sum, when on being
set down at the place of their destination, the driver has charged double the
price agreed on, on the ground that the sum named was only for the party
himself, and that the additional demand made was for the luggage. To prevent
being imposed on in this way, the party should make a distinct stipulation that
the luggage be included in the price. This the coachmen, when they find they
are otherwise likely to lose their customer, never hesitate to agree to. Some
people think it is not legal for hackney coachmen to charge for one's luggage
after having charged the full fare from the passengers; but this is a [-260-]
mistake. "The law," as Shylock says, " allows it," and a "court" of magistrates will "award it."
The Cabs are small light four-wheeled
vehicles, drawn
by one horse, and licensed to carry only two persons. They are twice as numerous
in London as the hackney coaches. Their number is between 1400 and 1500. They
are driven more rapidly than the hackney coaches, but are in great danger of
being upset. Formerly a great many accidents occurred to persons in them; for
as, until within the last three or four years, they were open at the front, the
inmate was sure when the horse fell, by no means an uncommon thing in
London, to be thrown out into the street, and had great reason for gratitude
when he was fortunate enough to escape any serious injury by the fall, if
indeed he was not run over by some other vehicle, before he had time to rise.
This objection to cabs, which with many persons was at one time so insuperable as to prevent their ever entering one, has latterly been removed by the
general introduction of cabs built on an altogether different prin-[-261-]ciple, though retaining the attribute of equal lightness. A considerable number
of these new-fashioned cabs has been brought into use within the last two or
three years, and they promise fair to supersede the old ones altogether before a
long time has elapsed. They are entered at the side instead of the front, and
instead of being open as the old ones are (by which the passenger is exposed to
the rain), they are ,as close all round as a coach. As they are not so high
built as the others, they run less risk of being upset. Even were they to be
so, the party inside would not be in any great danger of receiving much personal
injury.
The fare for cabs is one-third less than for hackney
coaches. It is, in other words, eightpence per mile. As in the case of hackney
coaches., nothing less than a mile is counted in the first instance ; but
afterwards half-miles are calculated on. When time is an object, cabs are
desirable vehicles to employ, were it not for the danger to the inmates, to
which I have already referred. Until within the last eighteen or twenty months,
the new ones were not suffici-[-262-]ently numerous to be had at
all times; so that when a party was pressed for time, he was obliged to employ
one of the old ones, notwithstanding the personal danger to which he thereby
exposed himself. This is no longer the cue. The improved cabs are to be met with
everywhere. Indeed, the difficulty will soon be to meet one at all constructed
on the old principle, should any person feel disposed to give it a preference.
The advantage of coaches and cabs over omnibuses is, that the latter always keep
the leading streets; they never, on any account, quit them; so that except where
one has to visit some place in one of the most frequented streets, they are of
little use to him. Coaches and cabs, on the other hand, take you through cross
thoroughfares and the most obscure streets, to any part of London you wish, and
will put you down at the very door of the house you intend to enter. The
advantage of cabs over coaches is that the former are cheaper, and are driven
with greater rapidity than the latter.
There are coach and cab stands at certain distances from
each other, in all parts of the [-263-] metropolis. Sometimes you will see twenty or
thirty of these vehicles standing in the same street, all waiting for what the
drivers call " fares," namely, persons to engage them. You will find
them on these stands in all sorts of weather, and at all times. There are
generally as many to be seen in the middle of the night as in the middle of the
day. The horses need little tending while on the stand: custom has made the
middle of the street a sort of open-aired stable to them. They look on the stands
as their home. There they eat the "vitals" which the drivers provide
for them, and which are served up to them in small bags, fastened to their
heads. It is amusing to see the ingenuity which the poor animals display in
getting at their food when near the bottom of the bag. Some of them are
remarkably expert at inverting the bag by a movement of the head, and then
catching the contents in their descent; while others lay the bag on the back part
of some other coach or cab, and by that means get at the bottom with the
greatest ease. In fine weather, after the public houses are shut up for the [-264-]
night, the hackney-coach and cab-men sleep on the dickeys: in wet or exceedingly
cold weather, they go inside, and then commit themselves to the embraces of
Morpheus. Those who know no better, will be surprised when they hear me speak
of of coach and cab-men sleeping while their horses are standing in the
streets. It will be asked, is there no danger of the horses taking fright and
running off through the streets? None whatever. Hackney-coach and cab-horses
are "them ere sort of hanimals as never takes fright!" They get too much
of what Falstaff would have called "running on compulsion," to show any
disposition to move off of their own accord. They are no friends to the
"voluntary principle." They bless their stars, and are "thankful to
the public," when permitted to occupy the stand in peace and quietness. If
any of my readers have restive horses or animals that show too great an alacrity
at running away, just lend them for one little fortnight to a hackney-coach or
cab-man, and I will answer for it, If "the shine" to use a coachman's
expression, will in that short time be effectually taken out of them. There is a
[-266-] common saying, "Marry the sea and it will tame her." The meaning is,
that marriage has a wonderfully subduing tendency. We have all seen proofs of
this in the case both of men and women. Well, then, what marriage is to the
human race, a short time in a hackney coach or cab, is to refractory or
high-spirited horses.
Hackney coach and cab-men are a singular race. They are
a class of men by themselves. They have no intercourse with thE: rest of their
fellow men. They are, with very few exceptions, altogether illiterate; they
amuse themselves by everlastingly speaking about "vekels and 'oses,"
and in abusing each other. Were it not for the coarseness of their
expressions, I know of no richer scene than to see these men vituperating one
another. They are eternally quarrelling among themselves as to who has the best
right to particular places on the stand. They are a most obstinate and
self-willed class of men; they will a thousand times sooner punish themselves
than yield to each other. Some of the best scenes I have ever seen between two
of their number, have [-266-] had their origin in their vehicles meeting in
some street which was too narrow for them to pass. In all such cases, there is a
regular interchange of the choicest flowers of their favourite rhetoric. Neither
will "back again" to let the other pass; there they almost invariably
remain till some policeman comes up, and compels one to give way to the other.
Leave the dispute as to which ought to go back, to be settled between
themselves, and I verily believe, that in the true spirit of obstinacy, they
would remain there from" noon to eve, from eve to dewy mom."
Hackney coach and cab-men make but a poor living. If on
some days they draw ten or twelve shillings, they do not on others earn eighteen
pence. I have known them remain two or three days on the stand without being
employed in a single instance. When I mention this fact, and also state that the
expenses of keeping horse and paying the license, are in no case under thirty
shillings per week, it will at once be' seen that even those who are most
fortunate, are not likely to enrich themselves by the coach or cab business.
[-267-] Hitherto I have confined my observations to omnibuses,
hackney coaches, and cabs. I now proceed to give some account of various other
kinds of vehicles.
In walking along the streets of London, especially in
the central and eastern parts of it, the stranger is struck with the number of
waggons of all descriptions which he sees in every direction. Among these, the
good old Saxon wain is particularly deserving of notice. Of this class there are
a great many in the metropolis. They are from fifteen to eighteen feet in
length, and of proportionate depth and breadth. They are four-wheeled vehicles,
and drawn by four, five, or even six horses, according to circumstances. Five
horses is the more common number. These waggons are peculiarly adapted for the
transit of miscellaneous goods, which is the purpose to which they are chiefly
applied. The quantity of goods sometimes carried by them, would appear
incredibly great to those unacquainted with what may be stowed into, or rather
erected on, them by skilful hands. They are strongly built. Tons [-268-]
on tons
might be piled on them without injuring them by the weight. Most of these
waggons belong to the more extensive city merchants. The proprietors of all the
leading wharfs have one or more waggons of this kind. All of them display the
City of London arms, which consist of a white shield, with a dagger in one of
the compartments. Having the city arms thus affixed to the front of the waggons
shows that the owners are free of' the city; and therefore the vehicles are
suffered to pass through the tolls in the city, without any toll being exacted.
The names of the owners of the waggons are also painted in large conspicuous
letters in the front of the vehicle.
There is something very interesting in seeing one of the
better class of waggons moving along the streets of London. A writer of more
poetical temperament than myself, would . represent it as imposing, if not even
sublime, to see the fine large horses which draw these vehicles, with their
flowing manes and ample tails, proceeding with measured and majestic step,
the coal-black and well-scrubbed har-[-269-]ness, decorated in many places with small
pieces of shining brass, to say nothing of the brass star which dangles on the
forehead of the animals; to see this in conjunction with the "
comfortable" self-complacent appearance of the driver of the team, walking
with whip in hand within a few feet of the horses, and rejoicing in the peculiar
conformation of his hat, his smock frock, and quarter boots, tightly laced, and
boasting soles half an inch thick, exclusive of the huge hob-nails with which
they are studded from heel to toe; to see all this is to witness a picture of a
decidedly interesting and national character.
There is an immense number of coal waggons in London.
The coals are all carried ~ small bags from the different wharfs to the houses
of the inhabitants. Each bag contains two hundred weight, and the waggons
usually carry thirty-six of these bags, making the entire load upwards of three
tons and a half. I like to see the coal waggons proceeding in all directions,
because of the jolly-looking countenances of the drivers, notwithstanding their
artificial [-270-] ebony complexion. They are a hearty,
good-humoured race of beings,
and "if so be as they get summut to drive the dust down their
throats," they envy nobody. If you give them the wherewith to procure a
pint of porter, they will not only touch the leather cowls which they patronise
as substitutes for hats, but they will show the whites of their eyes and their
teeth the only white parts of their physiognomies in what a cockney
would call a "reg'lar grateful smile."
There is another kind of waggon which is pretty
generally to be met with in London. I allude to the light waggons or vans
usually employed for the removal of furniture from one part of town to another.
These vehicles are drawn by one horse, and are kept on speculation by persons
who make a living by letting them and a horse to persons who are about to move
from one house to another. Sometimes they are let out by the hour, at other
times the proprietors charge so much for a certain distance. When let by the
hour, the charge varies according to the circumstances [-271-] of the parties
employing the owner, from two shillings upwards. When by the distance, the usual
charge made is five or six shillings per mile; only that after going one mile a
reduced charge is generally made for the remaining distance.
Of the carts which crowd the streets of London, it is
not necessary for me to lay much. They are of all sorts and sizes, and are used
for all imaginable purposes. There are some carts which are made for carrying
street manure of an immensely large size, and so strong that no weight that can
be put into them will. do them the slightest injury. In rainy weather the street
manure is so weighty, that six or seven of the strongest horses that can be
procured are sometimes employed to draw them. The drivers of these vehicles,
though usually patched in all parts of their persons, if not indeed plastered
all over from top to toe, with the muddy commodity they are employed to transfer
from place to place, are a merry-hearted race of men. They are always in
excellent spirits, and are very often engaged, when they have a leisure [-272-]
moment,
in playing all descriptions of tricks at each other's expense. Some of them
display a "wonderful alacrity" in getting drunk, as Falstaff's ponderous
body did in sinking when thrown into the Thames. When any of them do thus quaff
such prodigiously large potations of "Barclay, Perkins, & Co's
Entire," or Thompson's blue ruin, as to be incapable of preserving their
equilibrium, some of their thirsty brethren throw them into one of their carts
with as little ceremony as they would a shovel of street manure, and carry them
home with as little concern as if they were a mere mass of inanimate mud. I
speak with all seriousness when I say, that I have often wondered that some of
them, in these cases, do not choke from a too close intimacy with the contents
of the carts, when the weather is sufficiently dry to give the rakings of the
streets less of a liquid appearance than they have after heavy showers of rain.
I have repeatedly seen them lying on their faces on the top of a load of street
manure, in a state of perfect unconsciousness, with their mouths literally
"in the dust." And yet, [-273-] though I am convinced that a few minutes
in the circumstances in which I have seen these men, would prove fatal to
other individuals, it does not appear to cause them the slightest injury, or
even a momentary inconvenience.
There is another class of carts which is very common in
London, altogether different from the strong and large vehicles of which I have
been speaking. I allude to those carts which are often used by butchers and
other tradesmen, for the purpose of conveying small quantities of goods and
sometimes individuals from one place to another. They are a sort of square
box, light, yet strongly made, and resting on springs, so that one sits in
them, as far as motion is concerned, as comfortably as if he were in a gig. The
only drawbacks to their convenience are, that they are open above, so that there
is no protection against cold or rain, and there is nothing against which to
lean one's back. The seat consists simply of a board about a foot broad, which
stretches from one side to the other, a little towards the front. They are
usually about five feet in length by [-274-] four feet in breadth; their depth
is about two feet. The horses are invariably of that class used for coaches and
cabs; and they are driven as rapidly as these vehicles. The peculiar form in
which these carts are built, exempts the proprietors from the license exacted on
gigs.
To enumerate the various other vehicles which are to be
seen in the streets of London, would be impossible; they are always changing in
size and form. There is a kind of vehicle called the truck, which is employed by
many persons in business for the conveyance of goods from their premises to the
houses of their customers. This vehicle is somewhat in the shape of a large box,
with a lid which opens double at the top. It usually measures between three and
a half and five feet in length, by three in breadth, and two and a half in
depth. It runs on large but light wheels, and instead of being drawn by a
horse, is .drawn by young men by means of a pole, not unlike that of a coach,
two or three feet in length in the front. In very many cases the young man who
may be thus said to be yoked into the truck, used to be very greatly assisted [-275-]
by a large dog underneath, and trained to "draw" in the
same way as if he were a horse. There are other trucks which have two spokes at
the farther end, somewhat resembling, though of course much lighter, the shafts
of a gig. The party who has to move a truck constructed in this way, pushes it
before him in the same manner as if he were driving a wheelbarrow, only that in
almost every case he was, until the commencement of last year, most materially
assisted by a dog harnessed to the vehicle underneath. These dogs were admirably
trained for the purpose; and drew weights which would appear incredible to those
who had not witnessed their achievements in that way. They were for the most
part very spirited animals, seldom needing the application of the lash. Indeed,
so great was the exertion they made, that they often worked themselves to
death.
In the sessions of 1839, an act was passed prohibiting
the use of dogs in London trucks, from and after the commencement of 1840.
These latter observations lead me to say a word or two
about another class of vehicles, [-276-] which until the beginning of
1840, were quite common in the streets of the metropolis. I mean the very small carts
which were drawn entirely by dogs. These lilliputian carts were used for a
variety of purposes, and were sometimes drawn by one dog, although occasionally
by as many as three. The dogs were duly harnessed as if they were horses, and
were trained to their duties as drawers of these vehicles in a wonderful way.
In many cases the persons, mostly boys or young men, charged with them, or to
whom they belonged, sat in the carts themselves, and drove the tractable
creatures whip in hand, just as if they were horses. They proceeded at an
amazing celerity through the streets; frequently exceeding hackney coaches and
cabs in the rapidity of their movements. The only thing to be regretted was,
that they were not only often overburdened, but very cruelly used by those who
had the charge of them.
No one can be in the streets of London without being
struck with the di1ferent appearance which vehicles present in the various parts
of the [-277-] town. In the city many ponderous waggons meet one's eye, and assail one's
ears in every direction. Carts, omnibuses, hackney coaches. cabs, &c., are
also very numerous; but a splendid carriage or even a handsome cabriolet is a
sight which is seen but comparatively seldom. In Regent Street, Bond Street, and
the other parts of the West End, matters are completely reversed. There splendid
equipages of all descriptions dazzle your eye in whatever quarter you turn; you
seem to be in a fairy land where everything around you is glare and glitter. The
waggon or cart is only seen at intervals in the western parts of the metropolis.
So great is the contrast which the West End and City present to each other, in
regard to the class of vehicles most common in each, that I am sure any one who
has been any length of time in London, would be able, were he led blindfolded
either to the City or West End, to decide which of the two he was in by the
testimony of his ears alone. If in the City, the everlasting rumbling and
rattling of waggons, carts, and other vehicles for commercial purposes, would at
once admonish him of the fact. The absence of this peculiar kind of
rattling, and the slight noise caused by the light and rapid movements of
carriages and gigs at the West End, would inform him with equal certainty, that
he had been conducted to the locality selected by the aristocracy for their
residence when in town.