*

cess and again, in the First Part of Henry IV. (Act iii. Sc. 4), the King says to the Prince of Wales,

"Had I so lavish of my presence been,

So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company," &c.

Now Shakspeare died in the year 1616; whereas Hackney Coaches were not known, in the Streets at least, till about the year 1625 t.

Though the term Haquenée is French, it is not used in France for Coaches of a like kind; yet, after we had adopted the word as applied to horses of the common sort, it was easy to put them in harness, for the service of drawing, and the convenience of the Inhabitants of the Metropolis; whereby the word Hackney became transferred to the whole Equipage, then in want of a differential name; whereof the Coach, being the more striking part, obtained the name by pre

eminence.

* Love's Labour's Lost, Act ii. Sc. 2. + Mortimer's Pocket Dictionary.

Before I return to my subject, give me leave to add a word or two on the French Coaches of a similar nature, which are called Fiacres. The term is thus accounted for, though I did not suspect I should have found the meaning in a Martyrology. Fiacre was the name of a Saint, whose Portrait, like those of many other famous men of their times both in Church and State, had the honour to adorn a Sign-Post; and the Inn in Paris, Rue St. Antoine, from which these Coaches were first let out to hire on temporary occasions, had the Sign of St. Fiacre, and from thence they took their name. M. Richelet, in his Dictionary †, tells us, that a Fiacre is "Carosse de loüage, auquel on a donné ce nom à cause de l'Enseigne d'un logis de la Rue St. Antoine de Paris ou l'on a premiere

* About the same period that our Hackney Coaches became in use, a sort of Carriage arose at Paris under the name of a Fiacre. I mention them to account for the term, which in the common French Dictionaries is simply rendered a Hackney Coach.

+ Voc. Fiacre. See also Menage, Orig. de la Langue Françoise.

ment löué ces sortes de Carosse. Ce logis avoit pour Enseigne un Saint Fiacre." As to the Saint himself, he was no less a personage than the second Son, and at length Heir, of Eugenius IV. King of Scots, who lived in the Seventh Century. He went into France, took a religious habit, refusing the Crown of Scotland some years afterwards, on his Brother's death; and, when he died, was canonized. There is a cated to him at St. Omer's. commemorated on the 30th of August *.

Chapel dedi

His death is

* English Martyrology. Moreri's Dictionary. Collyer. St. Fiacre was the Patron Saint of persons afflicted with the Piles. "The Troops of Henry V. are said to have pillaged the Chapel of the Highland Saint; who, in reyenge, assisted his Countrymen in the French Service to defeat the English at Bauge; and afterwards afflicted Henry with the Piles, of which he died. This Prince complained, that he was not only plagued by the living Scots, but even persecuted by those who were dead." Smollett's Travels,

Letter IV.

N. B. There was a Prelate of the name Fiachre in Ireland, whose death is remembered there on the 8th of February. He lived about the same time. [British Piety, in the Supplement]. He was not a Saint.

As to the the time when the French Fiaeres first came into use, we are led pretty nearly to it by Mr. Menage, who, in his

Origines de la Langue Françoise," published in Quarto, 1650, speaks of them as of a late introduction. His words are, “ On appelle ainsi [Fiacre] à Paris depuis quelques années un Carosse de loüage." He then gives the same reason as we find in Richelet: but the words “ depuis quelques Années” shew, that those Coaches had not then been long in use, and are to be dated either a little before or a little after our own; insomuch that it is probable the one gave the example to the other, allowing Mr. Menage credit for twenty-five years, comprehended in his expression of quelques Années *.

But to return to our Hackney Coaches, which took birth A. D. 1625 (the first year of King Charles I.); and either began to ply in

* It is a little singular, that neither Cotgrave himself, in his Dictionary, first published in 1611, nor his Editor, James Howell, either in his Edition of 1650, or in that of 1673, take any notice of the word Fiacre in the sense before us.

the Streets, or stood ready at Inns to be called for if wanted: and at that time did not exceed twenty in number *. But, as luxury makes large shoots in any branch where it puts forth, so we find that, in no more than ten years, this new-planted scyon had grown so much as to require the pruning-knife; for that the Street Coaches had become in reality a national nuisance in various particulars and accordingly a Proclamation issued A.D. 1635 in the following words:

:

"That the great numbers of Hackney Coaches of late time seen and kept in London, Westminster, and their Suburbs, and the general and promiscuous use of Coaches there, were not only a great disturbance to his Majesty, his dearest Consort the Queen, the Nobility, and others of place and degree, in their passage through the Streets; but the Streets themselves were so pestered, and the pavements so broken up, that the common passage is thereby hindered and made dangerous; and the prices of hay and provender, and other provisions of stable, thereby made exceeding dear: Wherefore we expressly command and forbid, That, from the Feast of St. John the Baptist next coming, no Hackney or Hired Coaches be used or suffered in Lon

* Anderson on Commerce, II. 20.