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allowed, the Coachman is entitled to a larger fare, that is, as much as if he had gone another half mile. The doctrine is the same respecting Chairs, and the room allowed is eight yards in the case of a Coach, and four yards in the case of a Chair. As the Statute gives all competent allowances to the Coachmen and Chairmen, so it was requisite, on the other hand, to make the contract obligatory, and that each of them should be compellable to perform their parts; and therefore, to do this, and at the same time to prevent extortion, it became necessary to add a severe penal clause, viz. "that if any HackneyCoachman or Chairman shall refuse to go at, or shall exact more for his hire than, the several rates hereby limited, he shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of forty shillings." These penalties were, by this Act, to have gone in the proportion of two-thirds to the Queen, and one-third to the Plaintiff. [Since made half to the Crown and half to the Complainant.] The Coachmen and Chairmen are thereby likewise liable to be deprived of their Licences for misbehaviour, or by giving

abusive language*. On the other hand, that the Coachmen and Chairmen might have a remedy in case of refusal to pay them their just fare, any Justice of the Peace is impowered, upon complaint, to issue a warrant to bring before him the Recusant, and to award reasonable satisfaction to the party aggrieved, or otherwise to bind him over to the next Quarter-Session, where the Bench is empowered to levy the said satisfaction by distress. The Act proceeds to other matters touching the Commissioners themselves, &c.; and then states, that whereas by a Statute of the 29th of Charles II. the use of all Hackney Coaches and Chairs had been prohibited on Sundays, it gives full power both to stand and to ply as on other days. †

This is the substance of the Act before us; but it may here be observed, that in the 10th year of the Queen, 1711, one hundred more Chairs were added by Statute, subject to the same régulations as the rest, being found not

* Turned afterwards into a mulct.
↑ Restrained by a subsequent Act.

only convenient but necessary; as the number of Coaches, consistently with Public Faith, could not be enlarged till the year 1715, when the old term of twenty-one years should have expired.

Before all the provisions in the Act of the year 1710, referred to the future period of 1715, could take place, a demise of the Crown intervened, A. D. 1714, by which all such clauses, which extended to a future time, were of course become a nullity.

By Act 12 George I. chap. 12, the number of Chairs was raised to 400, on account of the increase of Buildings Westward.

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+ The MS here ends abruptly.-On the subject of Chairs, however, see Acts 3 Geo. I. chap. 7; 16 Geo. II. chap. 26; 20 Geo. II. chap. 10; 30 Geo. II. chap. 22; 33 Geo. II. chap. 25.

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THE HAMMER CLOTH.

To shew how trifling, though necessary conveniences, arise to great and expensive luxuries, let us remark the original insignificant appendage of what we call the Hammer Cloth. It was requisite that the Coachman should have a few implements in case of accidents, or a sudden and little repair was wanting to the Coach; for which purpose he carried a hammer with a few pins, nails, &c. with him, and placed them under his seat, made hollow to hold them, and which from thence was called the Coach Box; and, in a little time, in order to conceal this unsightly appearance, a cloth was thrown over the box and its contents, of which a hammer was the chief, and thence took the name of the Hammer-Cloth. This is my idea of the etymon of these two common terms. And here again it can but be observed that this little appendage is now become the most striking and conspicuous ornament of the equipage.

Articles of Dress.

GLOVES.

About the year 790, Charlemagne granted an unlimited right of hunting to the Abbot and Monks of Sithin, for making their Gloves and Girdles of the Skins of the Deer they killed, and Covers for their Books. [Mabillon de Re Diplom. p. 611. Grose.]

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Anciently richly adorned and decorated with precious Stones, as in the Rolls of Parliament, anno 53 Hen. III. A. D. 1267. "Et de 2 Paribus Chirothecarum cum lapidibus." [Warton's History of Poetry, vol. I. p. 182, note. Grose.]

Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, according to Mr. Walpole's account, on the authority of Stowe,-" having travelled into Italy, is recorded to have been the first that brought into England embroidered GLOVES and Perfumes; and presenting the Queen [Elizabeth] with a Pair of the former, she was

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