3-077-982 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of London Cabs and Cabmen: a Hansom cabman, 1890. 'The subjects of our Artist's Sketches are familiar types of common objects in the street-world of London...Here is an army of skilled whips, every one of whom must pass an official examination before he gets a license, and most of whom previously belonged to the classes of persons accustomed to manage horses: they were coachmen, grooms, carmen, or stablemen. Part of the examination relates to their knowledge of the principal streets of London, the railway stations, and the public buildings...We hope, in these times of improving civilisation and professed moral culture, when gentlemen and ladies understand it to be a point of honour to behave gently and fairly to all whom they employ, there is comparatively little of that insolent treatment of cabmen which belonged to the manners of a past age. Good breeding means good feeling shown with due reserve and propriety, and its grace is nowhere so apparent as in these small transactions with people of the humbler classes who render us direct personal service'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.