sides of the body are railed or carved, and the top is of a very ornamental character, similar to the howdah of state that is placed on an elephant. It has a domed roof, supported upon four pillars, with curtains to the back and sides [Plate 5]. The passengers ride cross-legged under the dome, on pillows. The driver sits on the pole, which is broad at the butt-end, and he is screened from the heat by a cloth which is fastened to the dome roof and supported upon two stakes which point outwards from the body. A variety of different shaped native vehicles may be seen in elaborate models in the India Museum at South Kensington, but they do not show much originality of design nor beauty of execution, and are said to be really creaking and lumbering affairs. When the Hindoos wished for a four-wheeled vehicle, the plan appears to have been to hook on one two-wheeled vehicle behind another [Plate 6], connecting them with a perch-bolt, and upon the hindermost they placed the body.
There is a singular addition to their vehicles outside the wheels; a piece of wood curved to the shape of the wheel is placed above it, frequently supported by two straight uprights from the end of the axle-tree outside the wheel; this acts as a wing or guard to keep any one from falling out of the vehicle, and also the dress of the passengers from becoming entangled in the wheel. In addition, a long bar of wood, rather longer than the diameter of the wheel, curved in the shape called “cupid’s bow,” is fastened to the axletree, the linchpin being outside of it, and the ends of the bar tied to the ends of the wing by cords. I imagine it to be placed in order to be a safeguard for the people in crowded streets, who might be pushed by the throng against the wheel. It will be seen in many of the models, and I have seen it also in ancient drawings of Indian and Persian vehicles. Many of the carts, which are designed to carry heavy loads, have a curved rest from 20 in. to 30 in. long attached to the lower side of the front end of the pole; this serves not only as a prop whilst the vehicle is being loaded, but, should the oxen trip and fall, it supports the cart, and prevents the load, yoke, and harness from weighing down the poor animals as they struggle to recover themselves. In England we have very few of these humane contrivances; we have, however, short rests to prop up a hansom cab when not at work.
In India there are several huge unwieldy structures on wheels called “idol cars;” the name of the car of Juggernaut must be familiar to many. The wheels of some of these are enormous blocks of stone shaped and drilled for the work. In the Indian Museum there is a photograph of an idol car from South India, in the district of Chamoondee and the province of Mysore, which deserves examination. The car appears well proportioned, and the ornamental carvings are beautiful in design, and would bear comparison with most European work.
The Hecca or Heka is a one-horse native car, resembling an Irish car; it consists of a tray for the body, fixed above the wheels on the shafts, and has a canopy roof; the driver sits on the front edge of the tray, and the passenger cross-legged behind him. The Shampony is the usual vehicle for women, which resembles the former, but it is larger; the wheels are outside the body, and it is drawn by two bullocks; the canopy roof is furnished with curtains that are drawn all round, and the driver sits on the pole in front of the body. All these native vehicles have wooden axles, which, until recently, I am told, were used without grease, from the prejudices of the people forbidding them to use animal fat. Some used olive oil or soap, but in most large towns there are now regulations obliging the natives to use some substance to avoid the noise and creaking of the dry axles. The commonest carriages in Central India are called “Tongas,” but the universal native word for a vehicle is “Gharry.”
In Calcutta are several coachbuilders of repute, who employ large numbers of native workmen; Messrs Dyke employ six hundred; Messrs Stewart & Co. four hundred; and Messrs Eastman, three hundred. The men are chiefly Hindoos, and are clever and industrious, but have a singular habit of sitting down at their work. The labourers who have to use grease are all Mahomedans. The wages vary from sixpence to two shillings per day.
A representation of a primitive vehicle, which was in use in Hungary not very long ago, is given by Von Ginzrot as representing the Roman rhedum. It is very curious, and just such a primitive affair as might be made in any country. [Plate 7.] The body is a disguised waggon; the tilt-top has two leather flaps to fall over the doorway; the panels are of wicker work, such as was in common use for carriages both in Greece and Italy; and of such a character we may suppose the waggons were, which were used by the many wandering tribes that, in the times of the Roman empire, poured out of Asia and Russia, and invaded Germany, Gaul, and Italy. In the history of Julius Cæsar’s wars in Gaul, we are told of the large number of waggons which the savage wandering tribes possessed.
Another primitive vehicle is the Turkish “Araba,” [Plate 8] used for the conveyance of women. The lattice-work admits air without too much light. The singular wing-guards over the wheels identify this “Araba” as being derived from the same source as the carriages of Persia and Hindostan. These vehicles have been superseded in many parts of Turkey, Asia, and Egypt by carriages sent from the west of Europe.
In 1860 a carriage was made for one of the ladies of the Sultan’s harem, which consisted of silver as far as possible. It cost, it is said, 2,000,000 Turkish piastres, about £15,000, a very expensive present for the ruler of Turkey to make to one out of many wives.
To speak of one more primitive carriage. Dr Edgeworth describes some cars which were in use in his time (that is in 1800) in Ireland, as the common vehicles of the country. They were composed of shafts with cross-bars; two low wheels of solid wood were wedged on to the axle-tree, so as to form one piece, like a railway axle and wheels; they were nearer together than the shafts, and ran inside the shafts; the axle projected beyond the wheels, and moved in sockets beneath the shafts. These cars, Dr Edgeworth says, “cost only four guineas, including painting; they would follow a horse anywhere, they could scarcely be overturned even with bulky loads, they were light and easily moved by hand, their repair was easy, and they lay so near the ground that they could be easily loaded and unloaded; the whole would turn in a very small compass.” It is probable that these were the primitive cars of Ireland. The nearest approach to them in the present day are the costermonger’s barrows. We have noticed how light and simple are these vehicles, and that a wretched pony or donkey will canter along with three or even four persons sitting upon them. They also resemble the Yarmouth cart, in which the wheels are inside the shafts; but then the difference is, that the shafts of the Yarmouth carts are of great length, and the load is carried between the horse and the wheels instead of over the wheels, as is usual in a cart. In some parts of Wales cars are used of this construction, and are also supposed to be the primitive cars of that country; their wheels are solid. In Yarmouth this shape was adopted to suit the very narrow streets or alleys, which a cart made with the wheels outside the shafts could not traverse. The great length of the shafts is occasioned by the necessity of carrying a quantity of goods, such as barrels or sacks, which would tend to make the vehicle top-heavy, if piled up above the wheels.
The Irish jaunting car, as now built, is superior to the vehicle of forty years ago. It was then on lower wheels, and being hung lower, the shafts pitched up in front, and the unfortunate passengers were huddled upon one another at every jolt in the road. This car was very light, a great benefit for the horse; it is easily turned and moved in a crowded thoroughfare, and is capable of conveying more luggage than might at first be supposed. The car is no doubt very cheap, and perhaps more Irish drivers are able to own their own cars than are the drivers of London cabs. Irishmen, perhaps, like the vehicle to which they are accustomed, but it will never become popular in this country.
The car, however, used in Cork, is still more uncomfortable. It is an inside car, that is, instead of sitting back to back, you sit face to face, and to most there is a hood or tilt; a very good vehicle, no doubt, for two persons at a slow pace, but with four persons at a trot it is the worst vehicle I had ever the misfortune to enter. If the Cork car was hung on higher wheels, and the shafts kept parallel to the ground, it would be a better vehicle; if, however, it cannot be balanced properly, it should be placed upon four wheels, like the inside cars of the North of England.
I will mention one more primitive vehicle,—the cart with a tilt, with side windows, and a door behind, which is called a Coburg, and is used in the south-west of England; when on good springs, it is a very cheap and comfortable vehicle. In Belgium and Holland it is much used, and is usually built of a larger size than in England. It is, however, after all, rather like a bathing-machine on wheels. It is to be found pictured in our earliest illustrations of vehicles in old English illuminated manuscripts, differing from the modern Coburg only in the want of a door and springs.
In reviewing what I have laid before you as to ancient carriages, I would say, that any one who desires to learn more about them can do so in the pages of the London Carriage Builders’ Art Journal for 1859 and 1860, which appears to contain much of the information given by the German work of Von Ginzrot.
It is interesting to observe the character of the different people illustrated in their carriages. The Egyptians, with all their learning and skill, appear to have made no change during centuries of experience; as at the beginning, so at the end, the kings stand by the side of their charioteers, or hold the reins themselves. The Persians and Hindoos introduced luxurious improvements, and in lofty vehicles elevated the nobles above the heads of the people, and secluded their women in curtained carriages. The Greeks introduced no new vehicles, but perfected so successfully the useful waggon, that their model is still seen throughout Europe, without change of principle or structure. The Romans, on the other hand, in their career of conquest, gathered from every nation what was good, and, wherever possible, improved upon it:—From Greece, the waggons; from Persia, the harmamaxa and elevated triumphal cars; and from Hungary, the rheda. We may well add that the genius of the Roman nation speaks through Cicero, when he wrote, “I hear that in Britain are most excellent chariots; bring me one of them for a pattern.”
CHAPTER II.
Whirlicote of the Middle Ages—Charettes—Cars of the Middle Ages—Revival of Carriages—The first Coaches—The German Waggon—Ancient Saxon Waggon—The Horse Litter—The Old Coaches at Coburg—Early Italian Coaches—Coach of Queen Elizabeth—Coach of Charles I.—Coach of Henri Quatre—Time of Louis XIV.—The Brouette and Steel Springs—The Berlin—Old Coaches at Vienna—Horse Litter at the Imperial Mews—Utility of Steel Springs—Mr Samuel Pepys’ Diary—Sedan Chairs—Coachbuilding in 1770—Chariot à l’Anglaise—Encyclopædia on Coachbuilding—Cabriolets—Light Chariots—The Darnley Chariot.
WITH the decadence of the Romans we may well suppose many of the arts of civilisation fell into disuse. The skilled artisans died out and left no successors, for their work was not required, and for some centuries we find little or no mention of carriages.
Ordinary carts were used, it is true, but the great and wealthy moved about the cities or travelled on horseback, and if ill they had litters carried by men or horses. But another cause tended to the disuse of wheeled carriages—the state of the roads.
The Romans had been celebrated for the perfection of their roads; some of these have lasted nearly two thousand years. There is one, called the Appian way, which leads from Rome to near Naples, made B.C. 500 by the Consul, Appius Claudius, which is paved with blocks of stone, and can still be travelled upon after such a lapse of time. Roads like these could easily be traversed by carriages, but in the course of time they fell into disorder, whilst barbarian tribes had overrun Italy and driven the Romans from Germany, France, and Britain.
The increase of population caused a gradual increase of traffic, and the formation of new roads, which, from the absence of method in making them, soon became mere horse-tracks, and very unsuitable for travelling on wheels for pleasure. We ascertain, however, from old manuscripts and books, that, by degrees, the use of two and four-wheeled carts was revived by the wealthy, in addition to riding on horseback as a means of travelling. The only distinction, however, from common carriers’ carts was in the use of carving on the woodwork, and gaily coloured curtains and cushions.
In the reign of Richard II., we find mention of a vehicle termed a whirlicote, viz., a cot or bed upon wheels. The king and his mother rode a whirlicote in 1380, when she was sick, and history tells us that they were much used for the conveyance of ladies, but still more for their luggage. We are told by Stowe that “in the following year King Richard took to wife Anne, the daughter of the King of Bohemia, and she first brought hither the riding upon sidesaddles, and so was the riding in those chariots and whirlicotes forsaken except at coronations and such like spectacles.” We have here evidence that the chariot and whirlicote of that time were identical. In 1294, Philip, King of France, issued an ordinance prohibiting the citizens’ wives the use of cars or chars. In 1267, Charles of Anjou entered Naples, and his queen, Beatrice, rode in a Caretta, the outside and inside covered with sky-blue velvet powdered with golden lilies, and in 1273 Pope Gregory X. entered Milan in a caretta. In an early English poem, the father of a princess of Hungary promises—
And ride my daughter in a char;
It shall be covered with velvet red,
And cloths of velvet about your head.”
Froissart speaks of the return of the English from Scotland in the time of Edward III. in their charettes about 1360. We can therefore trace the word chariot from the original Roman currus, car, char, charette, charet, chariot, as a vehicle used in the middle ages, and gradually becoming that chiefly used in state processions.
When King Henry VIII.’s queen, Anne Boleyn, went to her coronation, she passed through the streets of London; gravel had been strewed all over the pavement that the horses should not slide, and wooden railings were placed along the route; this was on May 31st, 1533. Anne herself was in a litter of white cloth of gold, not covered or bailled, which was carried by two palfreys clad in white damask to the ground, led by two footmen; following her were two chariots covered with red cloth of gold, a third chariot in white, with six ladies in it in crimson velvet; and a fourth chariot was red, with eight ladies in it.
Twenty years later, on September 30th, 1553, Queen Mary Tudor rode through the city from the Tower to Westminster to her coronation in a chariot of cloth of tissue, drawn by six horses trapped with the like cloth, and a canopy was borne over her chariot. A second chariot had a covering of cloth of silver all white, and six horses trapped with the like, wherein sat Lady Elizabeth and the Lady Anne of Cleves. Then two other chariots covered with red satin, and the horses betrapped with the same. Also forty-six gentlewomen rode on horseback in the procession.
Now what was the shape of these chariots? We are able to judge from a painting of the triumph of the Emperor Maximillian I., on the walls of the Town-hall at Nuremburg, a copy of which is in the Museum at South Kensington, also from a sculpture at Orleans Cathedral [Plate 3], and from an old print of Queen Elizabeth in a chariot. It was an open vehicle on four wheels, rather higher at the back than at the sides, open in front, and containing two or three seats, what the French once called a char-a-banc.
M. Roubo has preserved a design of a charette in his work written for the French Academy of Arts, but we cannot have a safer and more reliable model than in a Flemish car or char-a-banc now in the Museum at South Kensington; this is a very small vehicle with but two seats, only four people could just sit in it, and it is suspended on leather braces, which we do not know had been introduced into England in Queen Mary’s time, but that even is not impossible or improbable. We may, therefore, fairly conclude that in this Flemish car we see an improved representation of what our ancestors used during many hundred years under the name of whirlicote car, and of different sizes, to carry from four to twelve persons.
About the commencement of the sixteenth century we find that there was a remarkable revival of Coachbuilding in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany; and it has been warmly debated in which of these countries it commenced, which originated the word coach, and which first suspended a coach upon braces.
I may premise that we find also a vast increase in the size of the wheels used. Up to this period wheels of 4 feet to 4 feet 6 inches seem to have been the limit; but the first coaches, and all their successors for nearly two hundred and fifty years, had wheels 5 feet and upwards in height. I can only suppose that, as soon as any large body had to be conveyed, the model of the vehicle was taken from a timber-carriage, such as must have been in use in all parts of Europe. Secondly, although at first all the wheels of a coach were similar in height, it was soon found necessary, for use in cities, that the coach must turn in a shorter space than a lofty front wheel would allow. Consequently, the front wheel was made lower, and an imperfection was caused, the effects of which have been felt by horse and vehicle to the present day.
In all the claims to the origin of the coach, we must understand that by that word we mean a conveyance in which the roof forms part of the framing of the body—as distinguished from cars and biroches, above which a canopy was often placed by means of iron rods or wooden pillars.
We have further to notice that the vehicles called coaches are distinguished from chariots, by the name of Hungarian coaches, by the Italian writers, and that we must consider a coach to have been not merely a covered, but a suspended vehicle, after the fashion introduced first in Hungary.
Mr Bridges Adams, in his work on carriages, mentions that Ladislaus, King of Hungary, sent an ambassador to King Charles VII., to Paris, and as a present a beautiful carriage, the body of which “trembled;” it is considered that this coach was suspended upon leather braces, and was a specimen of the coaches already in use in Hungary.
The word coach in all European languages has the same sound, and is derived from the town of Kotze in Hungary, where coaches were first built, just as Landaus and Berlins were so named from the cities that first produced them. The coach from Hungary was given to Charles VII., at Paris, in the year 1457. In 1474, the Emperor Frederick III. rode to Frankfort in a coach covered and suspended. In 1509, the Pope Paul III. visited Ferrara, and was met by the duke with a train of sixty coaches, whilst to make it clear that these were not the cars, the historian mentions that the Duchess of Ferrara rode in a litter, and her ladies followed her in twenty-two cars. At this period, 1550, there were only three coaches in Paris, one belonging to the Queen of Francis I., another to Diana of Poitiers, and a third to a corpulent nobleman who could not mount a horse. There must have been many other vehicles in France, but, it seems, only three covered and suspended coaches. In 1594, the Margrave of Brandenburg, father of the first Duke of Prussia, had thirty-six coaches, each with six horses.
We will now consider what was the origin and the shape of these coaches. It is in the German waggon that we find the origin of the coach. Throughout Germany, Russia, France, and other parts of Europe, the chief agricultural vehicle is the waggon. [Plate 4.] It is of the same form now that it was a hundred years ago. The under part is similar in its construction to our timber-waggons, and, like them, it is capable of being lengthened or shortened at pleasure. The wheels vary in height, according to the requirements of the owner and the country, and the chief purpose for which it is used. As in our timber-waggons, the wheels are sometimes 4 feet and 5 feet high, and sometimes they are as low as 2 feet 8 inches in front and 3 feet 6 inches behind, but the usual size is 3 feet 6 inches in front and 4 feet behind, the track on the road between the tyres is but 4 feet, and the centres of the axle-trees are about 7 feet apart. The carriage is composed of a transom in front, with a perch (as we name the long piece of timber that unites the front and hind wheels) fastened to it. There is a hind axle-tree bed formed of two pieces of timber, clipped together, between which the wings are notched in; these wings meet together above the perch to which they are united by a strong iron pin. The under works consist of a front axletree bed, also made of two pieces clipped together with two futchels notched in between, and meeting in a point in front, and spreading outwards behind the axletree bed; a long sway bar, generally quite straight, rests on the futchels and bears against the under part of the perch. Our word futchels is derived through the French word fourchils, from the Latin furca or fork. The pole of these waggons has at the hind end two wings fixed by iron hoops; the wings are fitted outside the front end of the futchels and are secured by two moveable iron pins. This method of attaching the pole is very ancient; it was in use in the time of the Romans, and may be traced in old pictures. The horses are harnessed to splinter or drawing bars; the longest of these is attached to the pole by a bolt or pin. When the load is light, it is common to harness one horse only to the left or near side of the pole. The under works being thus complete, a body is formed by two long fir poles laid from the top of the transom to the top of the hind axletree bed, about 18 inches apart, with two planks between. Outside the poles are four standard posts, about 30 inches long, which rise upright from the transom and axle-beds, but which, viewed from behind, spread outwards from four to six inches each towards the wheels. The sides are formed by planks resting against these standard posts, and the ends of the waggon are also moveable. The body is thus much narrower at the bottom than at the top. We shall find that this shape pervades all the early vehicles used by the wealthy classes, showing very plainly the original type of the coach. When the waggon is thus fitted up with plank sides, it can carry earth, manure, or roots. When the farmer wishes to transport a load of hay, the planks are removed, the carriage is lengthened two or more feet, and the sides are formed by long and high hurdles. If a large cask of wine has to be transported, the sides are removed and the cask placed upon the centre of the poles, and, as the waggon moves along, the poles may be seen to sway slightly up and down under the weight of the cask, as the poles of a sedan-chair, or palankeen sway, suggesting, as I hope to show hereafter, a means of forming a species of spring for the ease of anyone riding in the waggon.
We find, then, at a very early date, that waggons were chiefly employed for the conveyance of agricultural produce or the transport of merchandise and the goods of the upper classes. It was also easy, by placing planks across the sides, or suspending seats by straps from the sides, to use the waggons for the conveyance of men and women. But we have evidence that they were made still more free from jolting. In an ancient Saxon manuscript treating on the book of Genesis and the history of Joseph in Egypt, there is an illustration of the meeting of Joseph and Jacob. The father is seated in a two-wheeled cart drawn by a pair of oxen, but Joseph is seated in a hammock, suspended by iron hooks from the standard posts of one of these waggons which I have been describing. This manuscript is supposed to be of the eleventh century, and the artist would be likely to represent only what
was in use in his own time for the easy conveyance of great people.
The next step, however, in the advance of Coachbuilding, would be the use of a better body than that of a mere cart. Such was the case with the Horse Litter [Plate 9]. These were long and narrow—long enough for a person to recline in—and no wider than could be carried between the poles which are placed on either side of the horses. They were about 4 ft. to 5 ft. long, and 2 ft. 6 in. wide, with low sides and higher ends. The entrance was in the middle, on both sides, the doors being formed sometimes by a sliding panel and sometimes simply by a cross-bar. The steps were of leather or iron loops, the latter being hinged to turn up when the litter was placed on the ground. The upper part was formed by a few broad wooden hoops, united along the top by four or five slats, and over the whole a canopy was placed, which opened in the middle, at the sides and ends, for air and light. The first pleasure-waggon bodies were made in a similar fashion to the horse-litters, but rather longer and wider, with similar doors. By degrees these bodies were ornamented with carving, and the slats of the tilt-top were exchanged for poles, whose ends were ornamented with metal rosettes, or animals’ heads, and gilt. I have not found any certain date at which these bodies were first suspended upon straps or braces. The suspension of a hammock from the standard posts of a waggon, and of the litter from the harness of the horses, would, however, suggest the suspension of these improved waggon bodies from the same standard posts. I have seen in a very early picture in oil, at Nuremberg, two waggons such as I have described, with carved and gilt standard posts both in front of and behind the body, the tilt-tops have the middle of the sides cut out square, and made to turn over the top, and the driver sits outside the waggon body between the standards.
We have, however, at Coburg, the capital of Saxe-Coburg, several ancient vehicles preserved, which are among the oldest in Europe. One of these was built for the occasion of the marriage of the Elector of Saxony, Duke John Cassimir, in 1584, to Anne of Saxony [Plate 10]. It has leather braces and high wheels, which measure 4 ft. 8 in. and 5 ft. in height; the distance from centre to centre of the axle-trees is 10 ft. 6 in. The carved standard posts, from which the body hangs by the leather braces, are evidently developed from the standards of the common waggon. The body is 6 ft. 4 in. long, but only 3 ft. wide. The steps have now disappeared. The wheels have wooden rims, but over the joints of the felloes are small plates of iron about 10 in. long.
This coach is not the only one. There is another, rather longer and larger, built for the Duke’s second marriage, in 1599, with the Lady Margaret. There is also a smaller coach-body built for the Duke John Frederick, as early as 1527, for his marriage with Sybilla of Cleves. This small coach was shown this year at the Exhibition of arts at Munich; the iron loops by which it had been suspended are still on the body.
There are also two small Coach bodies, which are to be seen at Verona, and are shown at the Palace Sarego Allighieri, with the story that they were used by Dante the poet. This is a fable. Count Gozzadini, in his recent work on ancient coaches, says that, by the heraldic shield still on one coach, he finds it was built in 1549, at the marriage of Ginevra, the last of the race of Dante Allighieri, with Count Marc Antonio di Sarego. This Coach, as may be seen in Plate 11, is beautifully shaped and ornamented. Both are but skeleton bodies, and had to be covered to keep off the sun or rain, with leather, cloth, and silk curtains.
There are curious sumptuary laws cited by Count Gozzadini as enacted during the sixteenth century in various Italian cities, against the excessive use of silk, velvet, embroidery, and gilding in the coverings of coaches and the trappings of horses.
In 1564, Pope Pius IV. exhorted the cardinals and bishops not to ride in coaches, according to the fashion of the time, but to leave such things to women, and themselves ride on horseback. Duke Julius of Brunswick issued an edict in 1588, that his subjects should desist from indolent riding in coaches, and should return to the useful discipline of riding on horses.
The use of coaches in Germany, in the sixteenth century, was not less than in Italy; the current of trade, especially from the East, had for a long time poured into those two countries towards Holland, enriching all the cities in its progress, and the rich traders built fine houses, and churches, and town halls, and would have their coaches handsomely decorated as well as their houses. Macpherson, in his history of commerce, says that Antwerp possessed five hundred coaches in 1560, in the time of Queen Elizabeth. France and England appear to have been behind the rest of Europe at this period.
The first coach was made in England in 1555 for the Earl of Rutland, by Walter Rippon, who also made a coach in 1556 for Queen Mary, and in 1564, a state coach for Queen Elizabeth; in 1580, the Earl of Arundel brought over a coach from Germany. Queen Elizabeth, however, preferred the use of a coach [Plate 12] which William Boonen brought her from Holland in 1560, and made him her coachman. This William Boonen’s wife brought out of Holland the art of clear-starching, and was appointed to prepare the Queen’s famous cambric ruffs, which in pictures of her are displayed round her neck. Taylor, called the water-poet, says that old Parr gave him this information in 1605, and adds that since, “coaches have increased with a mischief, and have ruined the trade of the waterman by hackney coaches, and now multiply more than ever.” Another writer complains that “now the use of these coaches brought of Germany is taken up and made common, that great ladies caused coaches to be made for them, and rid in them up and down the counties to the great admiration of all the beholders, and little by little they grew usual among the nobility and others of quality, so within twenty years there grew up a great trade of Coachbuilding in England.”
A curious tract or pamphlet was published in
London in 1636, entitled “A Dialogue between a Coach and a Sedan-chair.” In the figure of the coach, as given in this tract [Plate 13], there are no leather braces marked, but the artist may have omitted what he considered unnecessary details, just as the artists of the present day, making a cheap view of a procession, will figure coaches and chariots of a shape that was obsolete fifty years ago, and even in pictorial journals that should draw better, the shape and details of carriages are unfaithfully rendered. Still, on the whole, we may consider this gives the coach of the period—a long body, a domed roof, the sides open, with curtains to draw down when requisite, no door, but a leather screen hung across the doorway, a very small coachman’s seat, and swingletrees for the horses’ traces.
In 1641, on November 25th, Charles I. passed through the City of London on his return from Scotland, and banqueted with the citizens at Guildhall. He was met at Kingsland by the city authorities and five hundred liverymen of the city companies on horseback, each with his footman and torch-bearer, and was accompanied to Whitehall after the banquet by the liverymen with their torch-bearers. It is worthy of notice that the king’s coach is the only coach spoken of, and that the King, Queen, the Elector Palatine, their brother-in-law, the Duchess of Richmond, and three of the royal children, seven persons in all, rode therein. Plate 14 shews a coach of this period.
In France, King Henry IV. was assassinated in his coach by Ravaillac on May 16th, 1710. The account states that the coach was surrounded by blinds or curtains, but the king had drawn them back that the people might see him; with him in the coach were seven noblemen, that is, two persons on each seat, and two in each boot. A drawing of this coach has been preserved [Plate 15], by which we see the roofs and supports (somewhat resembling the outline of a Roman or Asiatic vehicle) and the curtain hanging over the doorway in front of the boot.
A coach belonging to a Duke of Saxe-Coburg is still to be seen at the castle at Coburg; in this the body is 7 ft. 6 in. long in the middle, the wheels are 4 ft. and 4 ft. 10 in. high, the roof and upper quarters are of black leather nailed on with brass nails, the heads as large as a sixpence and rounded. On either side of the doorway are iron bars to form the sides of the boot, and the doorway is guarded by a wooden cross-bar padded which drops upon two pins, and from which bar the curtain would fall over the doorway. With such a length of body we can understand how eight persons could ride in it. In prints of this period all coaches are drawn like this, with the bodies suspended on leather braces—with domed roofs and with the front wheels generally rather low—with a coachman seated upon a cross-bar or cushion suspended between the two front standard posts, and his feet upon a board projecting at the bottom of the posts over the pole.
Some coaches are depicted so wide that they may have held three persons on each seat, but the general appearance is that of Louis XIV.’s first coach [Plate 16].
No trace of glass windows or complete doors seems to have existed up to 1650. But plain and rude as was the first coach of Louis XIV. it was in his reign, which lasted till 1715, that the most rapid progress was made in Coachbuilding. From the simple waggon-like skeleton body was developed by degrees a beautifully shaped, carved, and panelled piece of cabinet work [Plate 17], such as we can justly allow to be worthy the name of a coach, and this delighted our ancestors in the reign of Queen Anne. The credit of this transformation is equally due to Germany, Italy, France, and England; in each country improvements seem to have been made simultaneously.
The following is the description by a French author, M. Roubo, of the change that took place in Louis XIV.’s reign. The corbillards are the earliest French coaches of which we know the exact form. [Plate 18.] These were straight-bottomed, open at the upper sides or quarters, which were furnished with curtains of cloth and leather; at first these were tied on, and would roll up when air was required; they had no doors, but were entered on either side by a moveable rail, over which a leather screen was hung. Behind these screens were seats, a little above the floor, where the pages of the owner of the carriage sat sideways. Sometimes there was a projection on either side called a boot, in which the pages sat.
The next coaches had curved bottoms, and were made with a wooden door half-way up the body, and the whole of the lower part of the body was panelled instead of being covered with cloth; this change is supposed to have taken place about 1660. As the coach began thus to be built in, carving, gilding, and painting were introduced, and beauty in shape increased. Next came the introduction of glass to the sides. A complete door reaching to the roof, with sliding glasses, followed.
There is very little mention made by historians of steel springs, but they were first applied to wheel carriages about 1670. At this period a vehicle drawn by men, and called a Brouette (or wheelbarrow) was introduced at Paris. [Plate 19.] It was a sedan chair, to hold one person, with the door in front like the sedan chairs are now made, but on two wheels, about 3 ft. 6 in. high, and with two poles or shafts projecting forward, between which one man ran, whilst another pushed behind if the weight required it. There is a vehicle now much in use in Japan and China that seems a revival of the brouette; I think it is called a Jin-rik-sha.
The brouette was improved by Dupin, who applied two elbow-springs beneath the front, and attached them to the axletree by long shackles, the axletree working up and down in a groove beneath the inside seat. This is the first record of the application of steel springs to carriages. Many bath-chairs have springs from the body to the axletree in this method, and there is a tradition in the north of England that small broughams, on two wheels drawn by men, were used sixty years ago, as well as sedan chairs, for the conveyance of ladies to evening parties.
It has been said that a Mr Thomas brought springs
first before the notice of the scientific body of the Academy at Paris in 1703, but this is erroneous. The spring Mr Thomas mentioned is a small spiral spring to be placed between the double leather brace of a carriage. [See this spring in Plate 28.]
The first application of steel springs to a coach was beneath the bottom of the body; the loop of the brace was hinged, and between the body and the loop were placed two elbow-springs. [Plate 19.]
The Company of Coach and Coach-harness Makers was founded in May 1677 by Charles II., and was confirmed by King James II. in the third year of his reign.
In Germany, there was invented about 1660 the vehicle called the Berlin. It will be remembered that in the German waggon the bottom of the body is formed by two long poles, which afford a certain amount of spring when weighted only in the middle. Acting on this principle, Philip de Chiesa, a Piedmontese in the service of Frederick William, the Duke of Prussia, invented and built a carriage, which received the name of Berlin. [Plate 20.] It had two perches instead of one, and between these two perches, from the front transom to the hind axletree bed, two strong leather braces were placed, with jacks or small windlasses, to wind them tighter if they stretched. The bottom of the coach was altered from being straight to an easy curve, and it was fixed upon these braces of leather, which allowed it to play up and down with the motion of the carriage, instead of swinging to and fro from four high posts. Philip, the inventor, died in 1673.
In the Imperial mews at Vienna are four coach berlins, which, I think, may belong to this period. They are said to have been built for the Emperor Leopold, who reigned at Vienna from 1658 to 1700, and Kink describes this emperor’s wedding carriages as covered with red cloth and as having glass panels; he also says they were called the Imperial glass coaches. It is possible that the coaches have been a little altered from the time of their construction, but I consider that in these four we have the oldest coaches with solid doors and glasses all round that exist in Europe. Whether they are identical with the Emperor Leopold’s wedding carriages matters much less than the influence the Berlin undoubtedly had upon the Coachbuilding of that period. It was the means of introducing the double perch, which, although it is not now in fashion, was adopted for very many carriages both in England and abroad, up to 1810. Crane-necks to perches were suggested by the form of the Berlin perch; and as bodies swinging from standard posts suggested the position of the C spring, so bodies resting upon long leather braces suggested the horizontal and elbow springs to which we owe so much. The first Berlin was made as a small vis-à-vis coach—small because it was to be used as a light travelling carriage, and narrow because it was to hang between the two perches, and was only needed to carry two persons inside. It was such an improvement in lightness and appearance upon the cumbersome coaches that carried eight persons, that it at once found favour, and was imitated in Paris, and still more in London.