3-077-977 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of London Cabs and Cabmen, 1890. 'The portrait sketched by our Artist which heads this article may be recognised by frequenters of St. James's-square as that of a favourite brisk hansom-driver who has won distinction in rowing-matches on the Thames...One of our novelists long ago suggested the idea of calling the ready hansom ''the London gondola"; and it may really be entitled, when it has attained sufficient antiquity, to be regarded by future generations as a vehicle not less romantic, being certainly picturesque, than the black canal-barge of Venice...Cabs are not only indispensable accessories to a railway journey of such length as to demand luggage, but are continually in requisition, for business errands in the morning, to save time, and, in the evening, to reach opportunities of social intercourse, or places of public entertainment, and to get home at night...It is to be hoped, among future improvements, that our cabs will some day be furnished with the small recording machine, in the nature of a pedometer, by which the exact number of yards, or revolutions of the wheel, in the distance actually run, is mechanically exhibited'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.