[31] A point of minor interest may here be noticed. When leather was first used for the covering of the coach quarters, the heads of the nails showed. But about 1660, “these nail-heads were covered with a strip of metal made to imitate a row of beads; from this practice arose the name of ‘beading’ which has been retained, although beading is now made in a continuous, level piece, either rounded or angular.” _Thrupp._
[33] The reader is referred for the fullest information on the subject of these stage-coaches to Mr. Charles G. Harper’s _Stage-Coach and Mail in Days of Yore_. 2 vols. London, 1903.
[35] It was over a _calèche_ presented by the Chevalier de Grammont to Charles II, that the famous quarrel took place between Lady Castlemaine and Miss Stewart, afterwards the Duchess of Richmond. The ladies had been complaining that coaches with glass windows, but lately introduced, did not allow a sufficiently free display of their charms, whence followed the gift of a French _calèche_ which cost two thousand livres. When the queen drove out in it, both the ladies agreed with de Grammont that it afforded far better opportunities than a coach for showing off their figures, and both endeavoured to get the first loan of it. In the fierce quarrel that followed Miss Stewart came off the conqueror.
[36] _Peter the Great._ By K. Waliszewski. Translated by Lady Mary Loyd. London, 1898.
[37] _Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne._ John Ashton. London, 1883.
[38] Originally, I understand, a fish-cart or lugger.
[39] This well-known expression for a carriage is generally thought to have been used first by an American quaker later in the century. Ned Ward, however, would seem to have been its real inventor.
[40] At this time M. Dessein used to advertise in the London papers. In _The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser_ for July 21, 1767, is the following: “To be sold, at Calais, a Travelling _Vis-à-Vis_, built at Paris about a year and a half ago; very fit also to use in the towns on the Continent upon occasion; being varnished in the newest taste, and covered with an oiled case to preserve it from the weather in travelling, and requires nothing but a new set of wheels to be in perfect repair to make the tour of Europe. Enquire of Mr. Dessein, at the Hôtel D’Angleterre at Calais, with whom the lowest price is left.”
