This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 Excerpt: ...van. The old state coach weighs four tons, that wonderful coach which cost 7,652L 16s. 9$d., out of which 2,5001. went to the carver; the new one weighs a little less. By the 'old' state coach we mean the one made for George III., the one with which the black harness is used; the present state harness is of red morocco ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 Excerpt: ...van. The old state coach weighs four tons, that wonderful coach which cost 7,652L 16s. 9$d., out of which 2,5001. went to the carver; the new one weighs a little less. By the 'old' state coach we mean the one made for George III., the one with which the black harness is used; the present state harness is of red morocco, a remarkably handsome piece of work with its gilt mountings, though it looks rather heavy in the glass case in which, like its predecessor, it iskepthung up to view. But as with the horses and carriages, the harness in everyday wear is in far better taste, and the working harness-room is quite a picture of brillianey, the steel being kept by the younger servants as bright as the brightest of silver, and showing up at its best on the blue cloth pads. 101 CHAPTER VIII THE CARRIAGE HORSE A Four-horse coach weighs a ton; a single brougham, the lightest close carriage built, weighs about seven hundredweight: the carriage horse has thus not much of a weight to pull, but he has to pull it at a good pace, and it is the pace that kills. In quick work nowadays it is as much as an average carriage horse can do to travel fourteen miles a day for five days only of the week. Eighty per cent. of the magnificent animals that draw the family coaches to the Queen's drawing-rooms are on hire from the jobmaster. If you keep them and shoe them yourself at your own stables, you can get them for a hundred guineas a year; if you want them only from April to July, you will be lucky to get them for six guineas a week, taking them by the month; or if you want them in the off season, you can, perhaps, have them cheap at sixteen guineas a month. If the jobmaster keeps them and shoes them at his stables, his charge is nearly double. This is for what is known as 'state co...
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