A work published in 1902, Omnibuses and cabs: their origin and history describes the vehicles, their operation, and the personalities associated with the English public transport systems. The author, Henry Charles Moore, includes material from the technical to anecdotal, along with a series of illustrations.
"A little bookcase, well filled, was fixed in each of his omnibuses at the end near the horses. Books were expensive in those days, and many people rode to Hammersmith and back for the sole purpose of reading a particular one which they knew to be in the omnibus library. But this admirable innovation was abused shamefully by the passengers, who appeared to consider it no sin to purloin the volumes.
Featured February 2010