Part 20

“The groom, or ‘tiger’ as he was then called, was a special London product: he was produced in no other city, British or foreign; all the genuine tigers hailed from London. His age varied from fifteen to twenty-five. Few there were that were not perfect masters of their horses, were they never so big. In shape and make he was a man in miniature, his proportions perfect, his figure erect and somewhat defiant: his coat fitted as if it had been moulded on him; his white buckskin breeches were spotless; his top-boots perfection; his hat, with its narrow binding of gold or silver lace, and brims looped up with gold or silver cord, brilliant with brushing, was worn jauntily. As he stood at his horse’s head, ready to receive his noble master, you might expect him to say, ‘My master is a duke, and I am responsible for his safety.’”

There is little enough to say of the gigs. The curricle, as I have said, is now rarely seen, though Sir Walter Gilbey mentions a particular one introduced about 1883 “which differed materially from the vehicle formerly known by that name. It consisted of a cabriolet, or whisky body, having an ‘ogee’ or chair back, the body being suspended by braces from C or S springs upon the undercarriage. Its peculiarity lay in the use of long lancewood shafts, set so far apart that the pole could be placed between them; the saddle-bar being used to support the pole, the shafts, it would seem, were somewhat unnecessary.” The _Cape cart_ brought into England from South Africa is a two-wheeled vehicle of this class with a pole in place of shafts, and “the sides being framed so as to present three panels.”

“At the back,” says Sir Walter, “was built in a large box for provisions, the full width and depth of the cart, the back seat forming the lid; the tail-board was used only as a foot-rest. An adjustable centre seat with backrest could be used so as to provide accommodation for six passengers. A white canvas tilt on wooden hoops with sunblinds at the sides, which could be strapped up when not wanted, covered the whole body of the cart.”

And similar to the Cape cart is the _Whitechapel cart_, which brings me to a brief consideration of the _dog-carts_.

As originally designed, the dog-cart seems to have been built high, and, as its name implies, for the purpose of carrying dogs. Such a vehicle would seat four, a roomy, comfortable trap “with space under the seats, where a brace of pointers or other dogs could lie at ease.” As I have said in a preceding chapter, the sides of the cart “were made with Venetian slats to provide ventilation.” Such a cart, however, proved so agreeable that no long time elapsed before its original purpose was lost sight of, and it became one of the commonest of country carriages. Built on a small scale it was admirably suited for pony or cob. Numerous varieties exist. In the _tandem cart_, as generally constructed, the driver’s seat is high—the only cart, indeed, of the kind to maintain any height at all. In the _Ralli cart_ two seats are placed back to back, the foot-rest to the latter closing on the body when required. (Built somewhat on the lines of the ralli, by the way, is the Indian _tonga_, “a rather low, hooded vehicle ... furnished for draught by a pair of ponies on the curricle principle with pole and bar.”) The _Battlesden_, _Bedford_, and _Malvern carts_ are other varieties. More popular, perhaps, than any of these is the _governess cart_, which, while really in a class by itself, may be mentioned here. This is a low and particularly safe carriage, in which the seats are placed at the sides, as in the waggonette, and the door is at the back. An improvement on the governess cart, though not nearly so popular, is the _Princess car_, first designed in 1893. Here the back door is dispensed with, the entrance being in front. “The driving seat is arranged on a slide, whereby it can be moved forwards or backwards to adjust the balance; and it also enables the driver to sit facing the horse instead of sitting sideways as in the governess cart.”

In the last chapter I pointed out the chief varieties of public carriages. Of these the hansom and the omnibus have undergone considerable changes. The hansom was enormously improved by Mr. Forde, a Wolverhampton coachbuilder, in 1873, when the Society of Arts offered a prize for the best two-wheeled public conveyance. Mr. Forde’s carriage was much lighter than the older hansoms, and “its merits attracted the appreciative attention of foreigners, whereby an export trade became established.” Four years later another vehicle, the _two-wheeled brougham_, was introduced, but did not meet with success. The _Floyd hansom_ of 1885 showed other improvements, and for the first time the hansom became a private carriage. Here the “side windows were made to open, as were two small windows at the back of the cab.” For a short while, indeed, the private hansom was one of the smartest of gentlemen’s carriages. Then in 1889 was shown another hansom with a movable hood. This was wholly unsuccessful, but the _Arlington cab_, a Dorchester invention of this time, may still be seen in provincial towns to which the taximeter petrol cab has not yet reached. The chief peculiarity about this hansom is its doors, which, instead of reaching only half-way up and being constructed at a backward angle, reach from door to roof and are upright—thus giving a more spacious interior. These doors are “fitted with sliding glasses in the top part after the manner of an ordinary brougham door.” A _brougham hansom_ was introduced in 1887. “This afforded sitting-room inside for three or four; it was entered at the back, and when the door was shut, a seat across it was so arranged that there was no possibility of the door opening till the occupants’ weight was off the seat. The driver’s seat was in front, on the roof of the vehicle.” A _four-wheeled hansom_ was also seen in London some twenty-five years ago. Here the driver’s seat was behind the carriage on a level with the roof.

“Everybody knows,” remarks Sir Walter Gilbey, “that the hansom, by reason of its steadiness, is an exceedingly comfortable conveyance; there is no vehicle that runs more easily, particularly when the load is truly balanced.” But in spite of such improvements as rubber tyres and patent windows, the hansom seems doomed.

Shillibeer’s huge omnibuses were succeeded by smaller vehicles of similar construction. For some years no passengers were carried upon the roof except one or two beside the driver. Then in 1849 an “outside seat down the centre of the roof was added,” to reach which you had to climb an iron ladder. This continued until 1890, when the much more convenient “garden-seats” were substituted, and a curved flight of steps took the place of the rather dangerous ladder. Private omnibuses were first constructed about 1867. They contained a rumble at the back for the footman, but this was speedily dispensed with. As built to-day, they are of various sizes.

One other carriage may be mentioned, and then I am done. This is the _Irish car_. Here, as in the larger _bian_, the seats are arranged back to back and sideways. “The wheels are very low and are concealed as far as the axle-boxes, or farther, by the panel of the footboard, which panel is hinged to the end of the _tray_, either side of which forms the seat, to allow of its being turned up when not in use.” Occasionally there is a well between the seats for small packages. In private cars of this kind there is a small seat in front for the driver, but this is rarely to be found in the public vehicles. The width of the _Irish car_ is enormous, and occasionally leads the neophyte into trouble. Outside Ireland, I believe, the car is not seen.

“Walking in the pleasant environs of Paris,” wrote Mr. H. C. Marillier some seventeen years ago, in an article entitled _The Automobile: A Forecast_, “or even further afield, upon the broad _routes nationales_ of Charente and La Beauce, it is no uncommon thing to meet on a summer’s day a little open vehicle flitting along without apparent means of motion, upon noiseless rubber-shod wheels, or panting forth a gentle warning from a square-shaped box in front. Two, and sometimes three, persons are seated in it, one of whom drives by means of a handle. To stop or to start again requires the turn of a screw or the push of a pedal. Such, in its most accomplished and most graceful form, is the _automobile_. To see it pass at racing speed—some of these little machines can spurt at twenty miles an hour—takes one’s breath away at first. The apparition is uncanny.”

In another passage he speaks of these horseless carriages as playing “a prominent part as the natural successors of the hansom cab and the omnibus,” and draws what must then have been a fanciful picture of a city upon whose roads there would be seen almost as many horseless as horse-driven vehicles. To-day we know what has happened since these words were written. The hansom is a rarity, except during a strike of petrol-car drivers. The omnibus is a speedy machine with a powerful engine. The growler persists, but only for the benefit of those with much luggage or for those afraid of the internal combustion engine, that extraordinary discovery which has revolutionised locomotion even more than did steam eighty years ago. With such facts as these it would be easy to prophesy a total extinction of horse-driven vehicles except for purely ornamental purposes. Yet I believe that there may be a reaction in favour of a more leisurely means of locomotion. As yet it is impossible to be truly dignified in even the most gorgeously appointed motor-car. “Carriage people” no longer form a class, and the old coach-building firms which have not followed the times and shown one or other make of automobile in their rooms are few in number. Mr. Marillier, moreover, in the article just quoted, speaks of “that ideal future when life shall consist of sitting in a chair and pressing buttons”; but the horse is not yet extinct, and although it is not probable that any horse-carriages of an entirely new type will be constructed, I imagine that the older forms will persist, at any rate, for the next century or two. Indeed, to my mind, there must always be the man who will prefer the reins to the driving wheel. And who can blame him for the choice?

FOOTNOTES

[1] “In Europe, sledge is the name applied to a low kind of cart, but in America the word has been abbreviated to sled or changed to sleigh, which in either case involves the idea that a _sliding_ vehicle is meant. In the rural districts, the farmer employs a machine we call a stone-sledge. This is commonly made from a plank, the flat under surface of which is forced along the surface of the ground by ox-power.” _The World on Wheels_. Ezra N. Stratton. New York, 1888.

[2] _English Pleasure Carriages._ By William Bridges Adams. London, 1837.

[3] “They also possessed baggage-carts shaped like the chariots. One of these appears to have had a very high, six-spoked wheel and a curved roof box. In front of the box is a low seat, from underneath which projects a crooked drag-pole.” _Stratton._

[4] _A History of Egypt._ J. H. Breasted. New York. 1909.

[5] _Dictionary of the Bible._ 1906. Edited by J. Hastings. Art. _Chariot._

[6] “We account for this difference by supposing that in battle, when success depended in a great measure upon the stability of the chariot, special care was taken to provide a strong wheel, while a weaker one was considered good enough for a more peaceful employment, a four-spoked wheel in those days being much cheaper and lighter.” _Stratton._

[7] The Assyrians also possessed curious litters. “Two eunuchs,” says Stratton, “are shown carrying a sort of arm-chair on their shoulders, elegant in design, supplied with wheels, to be drawn by hand should the king have occasion to visit mountainous regions inaccessible for chariots.”

[8] _The History of Coaches._ G. A. Thrupp. London, 1877.

[9] See p. 39.

[10] Stratton treats of these Roman carriages and carts in considerable detail, and mentions in addition to the _plostellum_, or small _plaustrum_, the _carrus_, _monarchus_, and _birotum_. Of these the _carrus_, or cart, differed from the _plaustrum_ in the following particulars: “The box or form could not be removed, as in the former case, but was fastened upon the axle-tree; it lacked the broad flooring of planks or boards, which served as a receptacle for certain commodities when the sides were removed; the wheels were higher [and] ... spoked, not solid like the _tympana_.” The _carrus clabularius_, or stave-waggon, could be lengthened or shortened as required. The _monarchus_ was a very light two-wheeled vehicle something like the _cisium_. The _birotum_ was also a small two-wheeled vehicle, with a leather-covered seat, used in the time of Constantine, an “early post-chaise,” as Stratton puts it.

[11] The carts of north Italy in the eighteenth century had remained practically unchanged. Edward Wright, who visited Italy in 1719, thus describes them: “The carriages in Lombardy, and indeed throughout all Italy, are for the most part drawn with oxen; which are of a whitish colour: they have very low wheels. Some I saw without spokes, solid like mill-stones; such as I have seen describ’d in some antique basso-relievos and Mosaicks. The pole they draw by is sloped upwards towards the end; which is rais’d considerably above their heads; from whence a chain, or rope, is let down and fasten’d to their horns; which keeps up their heads, and serves to back the carriage. In some parts they use no yokes, but draw all by the horn, by a sort of a brace brought about the roots of them: the backs of the oxen are generally cover’d with a cloth. In the kingdom of Naples, and some other parts, they use buffaloes in their carriages, &c. These do somewhat resemble oxen: but are most sour, ill-looking animals, and very vicious; for the better management of them they generally put rings in their noses.”

[12] _The World on Wheels._

[13] On the other hand, the scythes used by other nations may well have been on the wheels. Livy describes those used by Antiochus (_currus falcatus_): “Round the pole were sharp-pointed spears which extended from the yoke of the two outside horses about fifteen feet; with these they pierced everything in their way. On the end of the yoke were two scythes, one being placed horizontally, the other towards the ground. The first cut everything from the sides, the others catching those prostrate on the ground or trying to crawl under. The long spears (_cuspides_) were not on the yoke, as some say.”

[14] _English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages._ J. J. Jusserand. London, 1888.

[15] _Early Carriages and Roads._ Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. London, 1903.

[16] This appears to have been similar to the _carroccio_, described by Stratton as a very heavy four-wheeled car, surmounted by a tall staff, painted a bright red. Stratton also mentions the _cochio_, which he describes as a thirteenth-century carriage having a covering of red matting, under which, in the fore-part of the body, the ladies were seated, the gentlemen occupying the rear end. Both these _words_, however, seem to belong to a much later date and may be translations of an earlier original.

[17] “The XXX day of September the Queen’s Grace came from the Tower through London, riding in a charrett gorgeously beseen, unto Westminster.” MS. Cotton. Vitellius, F.v.

[18] _History of Great Britain._ Arthur Wilson. London, 1653.

[19] cf. Spenser, who uses three words which appear to be interchangeable.

“Tho’, up him taking in their tender hands They easily unto her charett beare; Her teme at her commandement quiet stands, Whiles they the corse unto her wagon reare. And strowe with flowers the lamentable beare; Then all the rest into their Coches climb.”

[20] It is probable that the closed carriage in which the Emperor Frederick III paid a visit to Frankfort in 1474 was one of these cotzi. Here the interesting point is that the Emperor’s attendants, apparently for the first time, were relieved of the necessity of holding a canopy over His Majesty’s head, except when he went to and returned from the Council Chamber.

[21] Taylor mentions in one place that “for the mending of the Harnesse, a Knights Coachman brought in a bill to his master of 25 pounds.” He also says that the owners of coaches liked to match their horses if possible.

[22] _A Book about Travelling, Past and Present._ Thomas Croal. London, 1877.

[23] So Massinger in _The Bondman_ says:—

“For their pomp and ease being borne In triumph on men’s shoulders.”

[24] The word hackney, possibly derived from the old French _Haquenée_, was the natural word to be used for a public coach, it being merely a synonym, used by Shakespeare and others, for _common_.

[25] _Curialia Miscellanea._ Samuel Pegge, F.S.A. London, 1818.

[26] Which was about the same sum that Defoe had to pay in London earlier in the century. “We are carried to these places [the coffee-houses],” he wrote in 1702, “in chairs which are here very cheap—a guinea a week, or a shilling per hour; and your chairmen serve you for porters, to run on errands, as your gondoliers do at Venice.”

[27] cf.

“With chest begirt by leathern bands, The chairman at his corner stands; The poles stuck up against the wall Are ready at a moment’s call. For customers they’re always willing And ready aye to earn a shilling.”

_Echoes of the Street_.

[28] In an article in the _Pall Mall Magazine_ for March, 1912.

[29] Birch’s _History of the Royal Society_.

[30] Some people have considered that the name was not derived from the city of Berlin, but from an Italian word _berlina_, “a name given by the Italians to a kind of stage on which criminals are exposed to public ignominy.” This seems rather far-fetched. In England it was always thought to have been built first in Berlin, and was a common enough term for a coach early in the eighteenth century. Swift mentions it in his _Answer to a Scandalous Poem_ (1733):—

“And jealous Juno, ever snarling, Is drawn by peacocks in her berlin.”

“It should be noted,” says Croal, “that we find the word differently applied in the earlier years of the century, and in such a way as to cast doubts on the derivations quoted. In some of the last Acts passed by the Scottish Parliaments before the Union, there are references to a kind of _ship_ or boat, called a berline. The royal burghs on the west coast of Scotland were in 1705 ordered to maintain two ‘berlines’ to prevent the importation of ‘victual’ from Ireland, this importation being forbidden at the time, and two years later an Act was passed to pay the expenses of the berlines.”

[31] A point of minor interest may here be noticed. When leather was first used for the covering of the coach quarters, the heads of the nails showed. But about 1660, “these nail-heads were covered with a strip of metal made to imitate a row of beads; from this practice arose the name of ‘beading’ which has been retained, although beading is now made in a continuous, level piece, either rounded or angular.” _Thrupp._

[32] See below, p. 133.

[33] The reader is referred for the fullest information on the subject of these stage-coaches to Mr. Charles G. Harper’s _Stage-Coach and Mail in Days of Yore_. 2 vols. London, 1903.

[34] _Omnibuses and Cabs._ London, 1902.

[35] It was over a _calèche_ presented by the Chevalier de Grammont to Charles II, that the famous quarrel took place between Lady Castlemaine and Miss Stewart, afterwards the Duchess of Richmond. The ladies had been complaining that coaches with glass windows, but lately introduced, did not allow a sufficiently free display of their charms, whence followed the gift of a French _calèche_ which cost two thousand livres. When the queen drove out in it, both the ladies agreed with de Grammont that it afforded far better opportunities than a coach for showing off their figures, and both endeavoured to get the first loan of it. In the fierce quarrel that followed Miss Stewart came off the conqueror.

[36] _Peter the Great._ By K. Waliszewski. Translated by Lady Mary Loyd. London, 1898.

[37] _Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne._ John Ashton. London, 1883.

[38] Originally, I understand, a fish-cart or lugger.

[39] This well-known expression for a carriage is generally thought to have been used first by an American quaker later in the century. Ned Ward, however, would seem to have been its real inventor.

[40] At this time M. Dessein used to advertise in the London papers. In _The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser_ for July 21, 1767, is the following: “To be sold, at Calais, a Travelling _Vis-à-Vis_, built at Paris about a year and a half ago; very fit also to use in the towns on the Continent upon occasion; being varnished in the newest taste, and covered with an oiled case to preserve it from the weather in travelling, and requires nothing but a new set of wheels to be in perfect repair to make the tour of Europe. Enquire of Mr. Dessein, at the Hôtel D’Angleterre at Calais, with whom the lowest price is left.”

[41] See next chapter.

[42] This was the Mr. Francis Moore, of Cheapside, who in 1786 and 1790 obtained patents for two two-wheeled carriages. The second of these bore considerable resemblance to the hansom-cab of a later date. It had enormous wheels—higher, indeed, than the body of the carriage—and the driver sat on a small box-seat in front and at a level with the top of the roof. The door was at the back.

[43] _Caricature History of the Georges_, Thomas Wright. London, n.d.

[44] “The shape of the body,” says Bridges Adams, describing Coates’s carriage, “was that of a classic sea-god’s car, and it was constructed in copper. This vehicle was very beautiful in its outline, though disfigured by the absurdity of its ornamental work.” When Coates had a fall, Horace Smith, of _Rejected Addresses_ fame, seized the occasion to write a mock condoling poem.

[45] For a detailed account of these mail-coaches the reader is referred to Mr. Charles Harper’s book, _Stage Coach and Mail in the Days of Yore_.

[46] _The Danger of Travelling in Stage-Coaches; and a Remedy Proposed to the Consideration of the Public_, by the Rev. William Milton, A.M., Vicar of Heckfield, Hants. Reading, 1810.