Interview with an Omnibus Driver
Henry Mayhew - London Labour and the London Poor (1851)
From a driver I had the following statement:
'I have been a driver fourteen years. I was brought up as a
builder, but had friends that was using horses, and I sometimes
assisted them in driving and grooming when I was out of work.
I got to like that sort of work, and thought it would be better than
my own business if I could get to be connected with a 'bus; and I
had friends, and first got employed as a time-keeper; but I've
been a driver for fourteen years. I'm now paid by the week, and not
by the box. It's a fair payment, but we must live well. It's hard
work is mine; for I never have any rest but a few minutes, except
every other Sunday, and then only two hours; that's the time of a
journey there and back. If I was to ask leave to go to church, and
then go to work again, I know what answer there would be – "You
can go to church as often as you like, and we can get a man who
doesn't want to go there." The cattle I drive are equal to gentlemen's
carriage-horses. One I've driven five years, and I believe she was
worked five years before I drove her. It's very hard work for the
horses, but I don't know that they are overworked in 'busses. The
starting after stopping is the hardest work for them; it's such a
terrible strain. I've felt for the poor things on a wet night, with a
'bus full of big people. I think that it's a pity that anybody uses a
bearing rein. There's not many uses it now. It bears up a horse's
head, and he can only go on pulling, pulling up a hill, one way.
Take off his bearing rein, and he'll relieve the strain on him by
bearing down his head, and flinging his weight on the collar to
help him pull. If a man had to carry a weight up a hill on his
back, how would he like to have his head tied back?
Perhaps you may have noticed Mr ----'s horses pull the 'bus up Holborn Hill. They're tightly borne up; but then they are very fine animals, fat and fine: there's no such cattle, perhaps, in a London 'bus – least-ways there's none better – and they're borne up for show. Now, a jib-horse won't go in a bearing rein, and will without it. I've seen that myself; so what can be the use of it? It's just teasing the poor things for a sort of fashion. I must keep exact time at every place where a time-keeper's stationed. Not a minute's excused – there's a fine for the least delay. I can't say that it's often levied; but still we are liable to it. If I've been blocked, I must make up for the block by galloping; and if I'm seen to gallop, and anybody tells our people, I'm called over the coals. I must drive as quick with a thunder-storm pelting in my face, and the roads in a muddle, and the horses starting – I can't call it shying, I have 'em too well in hand, – at every flash, just as quick as if it was a fine hard road, and fine weather. It's not easy to drive a 'bus; but I can drive, and must drive, to an inch: yes, sir, to half an inch. I know if I can get my horses' heads through a space, I can get my splinter bar through. I drive by my pole, making it my centre. If I keep it fair in the centre, a carriage must follow, unless it's slippery weather, and then there's no calculating. I saw the first 'bus start in 1829. I heard the first 'bus called a Punch-and-Judy carriage, 'cause you could see the people inside without a frame. The shape was about the same as it is now, but bigger and heavier. A 'bus changes horses four or five times a-day, according to the distance. There's no cruelty to the horses, not a bit, it wouldn't be allowed. I fancy that 'busses now pay the proprietors well. The duty was 2d. a-mile, and now it's 1d. Some companies save twelve guineas a week by the doing away of toll-gates. The 'stablishing the three- pennies – the short uns– has put money in their pockets. I'm an unmarried man. A 'bus driver never has time to look out for a wife. Every horse in our stables has one day's rest in every four; but it's no rest for the driver' (Mayhew, 1851, p. 220-223).
