Hackney Cab vs. Hackney Coach

Cruikshank, “The Last Cabdriver"
Loretta reports:

My characters in Dukes Prefer Blondes spend time in hackney coaches and hackney cabs. You will often find the terms used interchangeably, as though they were the same thing. However, a hackney cab was quite a different article from a hackney coach. The cab was a two-wheeled, one-horse vehicle. It held only two passengers, and seemed to be generally regarded as a mode of transportation for those who liked to live dangerously.

Leigh’s New Picture of London for 1834 briefly explains the difference here . You can read about them here in Omnibuses and Cabs, Their Origin and History , which includes excerpts from Dickens’s lively descriptions.

I’ve written a bit more about hackney coaches here , and you can read Dickens’s full version (which originally appeared in Bell’s Life in London in November 1835) here in Sketches by Boz .
1823 Hackney Cab Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will take you to the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.