COACHES.

221

" of a ship, fixed in a strong waggon, raised on high,

bearing on the top a little golden ball, with two very“ white streamers depending from it; in the middle, the“ holy cross, painted with the image of our Saviour, with“ its arms widely spread, overlooked the surrounding troops.“ So that whatever should be the event of the contest, they“ might be comforted with this sign. This afterwards was“ assumed anciently by the Milanese, with other Italian“ states, as the Bolognese, Panetians, Veronese, Beris-“ cians, Cremoners, Placentians, Parnassians , &c. and“ afterwards, that is, ill the thirteenth century, the use ofM the caroche was regarded as peculiarly advantageous in4 ‘ conquering the enemy. To preserve it was considered

honourable, and to lose it the greatest disgrace.”

Coaches .—We intend this word to stand for the genericname of all those machines used for the carriage of personson business or pleasure; except, indeed, those for the con-veyance of the dead; from the state carriage of the sove-reign down to the humble gig. The original inventor ofthis species of carriage, is said to have been an Athenianmonarch, and to the best of our recollection, Ericthonius ,the fourth Athenian king , B.C. 1489, who, being afflictedwith lameness in his feet, first invented a coach for his con-venience, and with a view to conceal that defect. This maybe regarded as the first original of the kind of Grecian in-vention.

Diodorus Siculus , indeed, makes mention of a carriage inwhich Sesostris was wont to be drawn; and also, he says,when he entered the city or w'ent out to the sacrifice, hadfour of his captive kings yoked to his chariot; but it is con-jectured this carriage, to which that historian alludes, was awarrior’s car. There is, most assuredly, ample room tobelieve that this was the first species of carriage which wasintroduced; if so, those existed long before the Athenianking above named; because all the Homeric heroes, Greeksas well as Trojans, and their auxiliaries, 1 rode in these ma-chines, called chariots or warrior’s cars, which are also knownto have existed long antecedent even to that period; forthey are repeatedly mentioned and expressly described byDiodorus Siculus , as well as scythe cars, used in the vast armieswhich the Assyrian princes raised; Ninus , Semiramis , the

* See the instance of Achilles* carriage and horses, that of Machaon, &c. Hector,and last Rhesus, to which this note has particular reference, in the xth Iliad ,

1 . 499 .