conveyance of middle-class Riding London, and of
these we now propose to treat.

Although there are, plying in the streets,
nearly five thousand cabs, there are only some
half-dozen large masters who hold from thirty
to fifty vehicles each, the remainder being owned
by struggling men, who either thrive and
continue, or break and relapse into their old position
of drivers, horsekeepers, conductors, or
something even more anomalous, according to the
season and the state of trade. Our inquiries on
this subject were made of one of the principal
masters, whose name we knew from constantly
seeing it about the streets, but with whom we had
not the smallest personal acquaintance. We had
previously written to him, announcing our
intended visit and its object, but when we arrived
at the stables we found their owner evidently
perceiving a divided duty, and struggling between
natural civility and an enforced reticence. Yes,
he knew this journal! he knew the name of its
conductor, Lor' bless me! but—and here he
stopped, and cleared his throat, and looked,
prophetically, afar off, over the stables' roof, and at
the pigeons careering over Lamb's Conduit-street.
We waited and waited, and at last out it
came. Would we be fair and 'boveboard? We
would! No hole and corner circumwentin?
We didn't clearly know what this meant, but
we pledged our word then there should be none
of it. Well, then—were we a agent of this new
cab company as he'd heard was about to be
started? Explaining in full detail our errand,
we never got more excellent information, more
honestly and cheerfully given.

Our friend had on an average thirty-five cabs
in use, and all of these were built on his own
premises and by his own men. There was very
little, if any, difference between the price of
building a Hansom or a Clarence cab, the
cost of each, when well turned out,
averaging fifty guineas. To every cab there are, of
necessity, two horses; but a careful cab-master
will allow seven horses to three cabs, the extra
animal being required in case of overwork or
illness, either or both of which are by no means of
unfrequent occurrence. These horses are not
bought at any particular place, but are picked up
as opportunity offers. Aldridge's, and the Repository
in Barbican furnish many of them. Many are
confirmed "screws," some are well-bred horses
with unmistakable symptoms of imminent
disease, others with incurable vice—incurable, that
is to say, until after a fortnight's experience of a
Hansom's shafts, when they generally are reduced
to lamb-like quietude. There is no average
price, the sums given varying from ten to
five-and-twenty pounds; nor can their lasting
qualities be reduced to an average, as some
knock up and and are consigned to the slaughterer
after a few weeks, while other old stagers battle
with existence for a dozen years. In the season,
cabs are generally out on a stretch of fifteen
hours, going out between nine or ten A.M.,
returning to change horses between three and five
P.M., starting afresh, and finally returning home
between midnight and one A.M. Of course there
are cabs which leave the yard and return at
earlier times, and during the height of the
Cremorne festivities there are many which do not go
out till noon, and very seldom put in an appearance
at the stables until broad daylight, about
four A.M. These are by no means the worst paid
of the cab fraternity, as a visit to Cremorne and a
mingling in its pleasures is by no means productive
of stinginess to the cabman, but occasionally
results in a wish on the part of the fare to
ride on the box, to drive the horse, and to
proffer cigars and convivial refreshment on
every possible occasion. Each cabman on
starting carries a horse-bag with him containing
three feeds of mixed chaff, which horse-bag
is replenished before he leaves for his afternoon
trip. The cab-masters, however, impress upon
their men the unadvisability of watering their
horses at inn-yards or from watermen's pails, as
much disease is generated in this manner.

The monetary arrangements between
cab-masters and cabmen are peculiar. The master
pays his man no wages; on the contrary, the
man hires horse and vehicle from his master;
and, having to pay him a certain sum, leaves his
own earnings to chance, to which amicable
arrangement we may ascribe the conciliatory
manners and the avoidance of all attempts at
extortion which characterise these gentry. For
Clarence cabs the masters charge sixteen
shillings a day, while Hansoms command from
two to three shillings a day extra; and they are
well worth it to the men, not merely from their
ordinary popularity, but just at the present time,
when, as was explained, there is a notion in
the minds of most old ladies that every
four-wheel cab has just conveyed a patient to the
Small-Pox Hospital, the free open airy
Hansoms are in great demand. In addition to his
lawful fares, the perquisites or "pickings" of
the cabman may be large. To him the law of
treasure-trove is a dead letter; true, there exists
a regulation that all property left in any public
vehicle is to be deposited with the registrar at
Somerset House; but a very small per-centage
finds it way to that governmental establishment.
The cabman has, unwittingly, a great reverence
for the old feudal system, and claims, over
anything which he may seize, the right of
free-warren, saccage and soccage, cuisage and
jambage, fosse and fork, infang theofe, and outfang
theofe; and out of all those porte-monnaies,
pocket-books, reticules, ladies' bags, portmanteaus,
cigar-cases, deeds, documents, books,
sticks, and umbrellas, duly advertised in the
second column of the Times, as "left in a cab,"
very few find their way to Somerset House.
We knew of an old gentleman of muddle-
headed tendencies who left four thousand pounds'
worth of Dutch coupons, payable to bearer, in a
hack Clarence cab; years have elapsed, and,
despite all the energies of the detective police,
and the offer of fabulous rewards, those coupons
have never been recovered, nor will they be,
until the day of settlement arrives, when the
adjudication as to who is their rightful owner—
with a necessarily strong claim on the part of