A STREET CORNER CONVERSATION IN 1636

Coach and Sedan. (Haslewood Press. is. 6d.) THE small talk of 1636 revolved round the question of street traffic. The coaches made so much noise—you could always break the ice with that remark. They took up all the room

on the road ; they ran over school-children ; trains of coaches waiting to take people from the theatre blocked up Blackfriars to such an extent that "persons of quality" were "restrained from going out or coming home in seasonable time." So Mr. Henry Peacham passed the time one day

by writing A Pleasant Dispute between Coach and Sedan. He was not a regular pamphleteer, he was careful to explain, and he was obviously more interested in setting forth con- versational manners and drawing portraits than he was in discussing the traffic problem, so his pamphlet makes probably even better reading to-day than it did in 1636.

The pamphlet is supposed to be an account of a street corner dispute between a coach and a sedan as to which should take precedence. A crowd gather round and give their opinions—all are rather unfairly prejudiced against the coach—and finally they are bound over to keep the peace by the brewer's cart. The beginning of the book is inviting :—

" It was just about the time, when the Cutkow (not daring to come neerer to the Citie then Islington) warned the Milkmaides, it was high time to bee gone with their pailes into Finsbury ; and nodding to the Cheshire Carriers, told them if they made no more haat, they would not reach Dunstable that night ; when myself with an English Taylor and a Frenchman (who had newly come out of France where they had spent halfe a pare to learns, and bring home the newest fashions there to their Ladies heere in England) comming down lack-anapes Lane, wee perceived two lustie fellowes to justle for the wall."

He remonstrates with them, and while they talk others join them, and a carter takes up arms against the coach :—

" They talk of the Rattle Snakes in New England, I am sure these bee the Rattle Snakes of old England . . . it is long of them that poore prentices are raysed up (before their hours) to their works when their Masters have been hard at it, at the Tavern over night. would (but for their ratting) have lyen till nine or ten : poem maids . . . cannot take a nap in their shops : children that gee to schoole or on errands in the street, gee in danger of their lives . . and in the streets about the Suburbs and places unpaved, you so beedash Gentlemen's Cloakes . . . that let a man but come from St. lames to Charing Cross and meets you in his way, one would

swear by his dirtie cloake, he had come post from St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall."

A waterman, who from his talk might have been John Taylor himself, complains :— " They both deserve to be thrown into the Theames and but for the stopping of the Channel I would they were . . . for where I was woont to have eight or tenne fares in a morning I now scarce get two in a whole day."

Then there is a " countreyman " who is particularly long- winded. He cannot understand why everyone in London

should have to be carried about. Our legs, he says, are good enough for us in the country, and in the good old days, I remember, Drake and Sydney and Frobisher walked the street without "any disparagement to their Honours." But he is a true provincial ; he soon gets off the track of the argument to talk about his home and his schooldays, and the distinguished friends he has in his part of the world.

"I well remember a Knight of our Countrie who this last yeere married his Mother's Chamber maide (and birladie, maintaines her in her Coach and four horses) . . , " and so on—and by way of such anecdotes he eventually gets round to what was no doubt his favourite story :—

" . . . And now I speak of whispering, I remember a good fellow of Goose-to/f, nears Boston, came to a Fishmonger in that Market, who had Mackerels to sell (a fish very rare in those parts) and taking up a Mackerell in his hands, whispered in the Mackerills eare, and then he laid the lefackerills mouth to his eare •' which the Fishmonger observing said, Friend doe you make a fools of my fishe, and of your selfe too ? No, said the fellow, I make bold, but to aske him when hoe was at Sea, and he tells mee not these three weekes, but this by the way."

Then "I," taking no notice of the countreyrnan's story (for none of the speakers makes any reference to what was being

said before, unless it was abuse or a question), tells the history of the coach : how it was invented in Hungary and its name is derived from the Slavonian word Kotsce, not from Coucher, the French, or from Cuchey the Cambridge Carrier, "as somebody made Master Minshaw beleeve, when hee (rather wee) perfected his Etymological Dietionarie."

After a good deal more conversation the crowd finally breaks up in the proper manner. " I " asks, "Which lies your way ? " To which some reply, "To Westminster-ward we goe." "And I," says "I,"

"into the Strand ; and for this merry meeting, honest Vicar, and Master Surveyor, I have for you a quart of the best Canary in Westminster, which I think is at Mr. Thomas Darlings (a very honest man) at the Three-tunnes by Charing Cross."

This book, the Haslewood Press tells us, has never been reprinted before, and it is an exact copy of the original.

It is very good reading and well worth its surprisingly low price.