Title: The History of Coaches
Author: George Athelstane Thrupp
Release date: June 11, 2015 [eBook #49194]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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THE
HISTORY OF COACHES.
BY
G. A. T H R U P P.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
KERBY & ENDEAN, 190 OXFORD STREET.
NEW YORK: THE “HUB” PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1877.
LONDON:
KERBY & ENDEAN, 190 OXFORD STREET,
Printers and Publishers.
IN the spring of 1876 I was requested by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce to prepare a series of Lectures upon Coachbuilding.
I chose as my subject the History of that Art, as likely to be more interesting than a merely technical description of the method of constructing vehicles.
I was desirous of enlisting the sympathies of the Public in general in an Art so important to the requirements of the age, as well as of calling the attention of the artisans of our trade to the principles which govern the construction of Carriages.
I need hardly add that I received from the Society of Arts all the assistance in its power towards composing the substance of the Lectures, and also in the preparation of the numerous diagrams by which they were illustrated; they further aided in procuring a very large attendance of artisans, employers, and others interested in Coachbuilding, at the time of my delivering the lectures in November and December last, in their great room at John Street, Adelphi.
It is deemed desirable that these Lectures should be re-issued in their present form.
I found it very difficult to arrive at the shape of the vehicles used by our forefathers on account of the absence of any connected history, and also from the very vague descriptions contained in books on the subject, but which were not always written for technical purposes.
It was not therefore without considerable search in books and examination of paintings and old engravings, that I could at all ascertain the shapes of the earlier Coaches, and of course both my time and opportunities were limited to a few months.
I have little doubt that there remain rich mines of information unsearched by me, because unknown. I shall, however, be glad to receive any information that will enlarge our present knowledge.
There may be yet in England, or abroad, some ancient Carriages which deserve to be described and photographed before they perish; for Carriages are too bulky to be preserved in any quantity in national museums.
Scarce books and prints, too, may exist in many libraries, and a list might be made of them; and a record is desirable also of those students of the Art of Coachbuilding who made their mark in the world and have passed away.
Any communication will be thankfully received and kept in an accessible place, to assist any future writer who may have the time to prepare a more complete record than I of the History of Coachbuilding.
G. A. THRUPP.
269 Oxford Street,
April, 1877.
| CHAPTER I. | |
|---|---|
| PAGE | |
Early Vehicles—Sledges—Solid Wheels—Egyptian Chariots—Early Vehicles Always had Two Horses—King Solomon’s Wedding Chariot—An Egyptian Mummy Wheel—Grecian Chariots—Vehicles of Ancient Rome—Scythian and Persian Cars—Funeral Car of Alexander the Great—War Chariot of Ancient Britain—Roman Military Roads—Wheels Found at Pompeii—Later Vehicles of the Roman Empire—Ancient Roman Dray—Carriages of Hindostan—A Carriage of Ancient Hungary—Turkish Carriages—Welsh and Irish Cars—Bristol Coburg | |
| 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 | |
| CHAPTER III. STATE COACHES. | |
A Coach of Silver—Lord Castlemaine’s Coach—Spanish Ambassador’s Coach—Ancient Spanish Coach—Austrian State Coach—State Funeral Coach at Vienna—State Coach of England—City State Coach | |
| CHAPTER IV. CARRIAGES FROM 1790 TO 1876. | |
Mr Felton’s Opinions—Proper Strength of Carriages—Method of Construction—Usual Width of Coaches—The Perch—Great Height of Wheels in 1790—The Lord Chancellor’s Coach—The Landau—Phaetons of 1790—Two-Wheeled Vehicles—Taxation on Carriages—Advance of the Trade—Invention of Elliptical Springs—Carriages of Napoleon Buonaparte—Number of Vehicles Paying Taxes—The Curricle—Introduction of Undersprings—Mr S. Hobson’s Improvements—The Briska and the Stanhope—The Tilbury and Dog-Cart—Commercial Travellers’ Gigs—Travelling Carriages—The Pony Phaeton and the Droitska—The Cab Phaeton and the Victoria—Dress Carriages—Coronation Procession in 1838—Improvement of the Landau—Introduction of the Brougham—Waggonnettes—Exhibitions of Carriages—Numbers of Carriages in 1874 | |
| CHAPTER V. ON PUBLIC CARRIAGES. | |
Travelling before A.D. 1600—Great Width of Waggon Wheels—Turnpike Roads—Post Saddle Horses—Hackneys—Stage Coaches—Hackney Coaches—Cheap Rate of Hire—The York Coach—The Manchester Flying Coach—The Post Chaise—The Diligence—Post-Boys—Mr T. Pennant on Travelling—Increase of Mail Coaches—M‘Adam’s Roads—Four-in-Hand Clubs—Russian Travelling—Two-Wheeled Street Cabs—Street Cabs need Improvement—Hansom Cabs—Omnibus of Pascal—Omnibus of 1820—Shillibeer’s Omnibuses—General Omnibus Company—American Coachmaking—Fast Cabs of Vienna | |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
Writers on Carriages—Periodical Publications on Coaches—Tight Harnessing—Height of the Driver’s Seat—Cover to the Driver’s Seat—American Buggy—American Trotting Waggons—Labour-Saving Machines—Machines Save Time—American Magazines on Carriages—Principles of Draught—Disadvantages of Two-Wheeled Vehicles—Track of Wheels—Utility of High Wheels—Side Thrust and Vibration of Wheels—Pitch of Axles and Dish of Wheels—Springs—Elliptic Springs—Brake Retarders—India Rubber Brake Blocks—A Load Should Rest on the Highest Wheel—Danger to a Stage Coach on Low Front Wheels—Carriage Drawings of Full Size—Value of being a Good Draughtsman—Mr Gladstone on Design—Coachmakers’ Company’s Library | |
| Frontispiece, | as Plate 37. |
| Plate 1— | Figure 1. Egyptian Car. |
| “ 2. Grecian Car. | |
| “ 3. Roman Car. | |
| Plate 2— | British War Chariot. |
| Plate 3— | Ancient Roman Chariot, from a Bas-Relief at Orleans. |
| Plate 4— | The Ordinary German Waggon. |
| Plate 5— | Two-wheeled Carriage, Hindostan. |
| Plate 6— | Four-wheeled Carriage, Hindostan. |
| Plate 7— | Hungarian Coach, from Ginzrot’s Work. |
| Plate 8— | The Araba of Turkey. |
| Plate 9— | Ancient Horse Litter. |
| Plate 10— | Wedding Coach of Duke of Saxony, 1584. |
| Plate 11— | Ancient Italian Coach of 1549. |
| Plate 12— | Queen Elizabeth’s Coach. |
| Plate 13— | Coach of time of Charles I. |
| Plate 14— | Coach of Paris in 1646. |
| Plate 15— | Coach in which Henry IV. was shot. |
| Plate 16— | Coach in which Louis XIV. entered Paris in 1654. |
| Plate 17— | Coach of Louis XIV., 1700. |
| Plate 18— | The Corbillard, an early French Coach. |
| Plate 19— | Brouette of Paris, 1670. |
| Plate 20— | The Berlin, from one now at Vienna. |
| Plate 21— | Litter to be carried by horses, now at Vienna. |
| Plate 22— | Coach of Charles II.’s time. |
| Plate 23— | The first Landau. |
| Plate 24— | Chariot à l’Anglaise, after M. Roubo. |
| Plate 25— | A French Chaise de Poste of 1760. |
| Plate 26— | From a Print published at Rome, 1692. |
| Plate 27— | Landau of 1790. |
| Plate 28— | Sociable after Hatchett. |
| Plate 29— | A high Perch Phaeton of 1790. |
| Plate 30— | A One-horse Phaeton of 1790. |
| Plate 31— | A Chair-back Gig of 1790. |
| Plate 32— | A Caned Whiskey of 1790. |
| Plate 33— | A Briska on C Springs. |
| Plate 34— | English Stage Coach, 1787, after Rowlandson. |
| Plate 35— | Diligence from Paris to Lyons. |
| Plate 36— | Modern French Diligence. |
| Plate 37— | Probably the first Sociable. The property of the Emperor of Germany. A Child’s Carriage of the date of 1700.—Frontispiece. |
| Plate 38— | An English Post Chaise of 1790. |
Early Vehicles—Sledges—Solid Wheels—Egyptian Chariots—Early Vehicles Always had Two Horses—King Solomon’s Wedding Chariot—An Egyptian Mummy Wheel—Grecian Chariots—Vehicles of Ancient Rome—Scythian and Persian Cars—Funeral Car of Alexander the Great—War Chariot of Ancient Britain—Roman Military Roads—Wheels Found at Pompeii—Later Vehicles of the Roman Empire—Ancient Roman Dray—Carriages of Hindostan—A Carriage of Ancient Hungary—Turkish Carriages—Welsh and Irish Cars—Bristol Coburg.
THE progress of the art of Coachbuilding, like the progress of most inventions and discoveries, has been slow. In certain ages it has seemed to make a sudden start, then again to remain almost stationary for a long time.
It is only during the last two centuries that coachmaking has been in a satisfactory condition as an art, and it has arrived at comparative perfection only during the present century. The same, however, may be said of other inventions:—Pendulum clocks were invented about 1260; paper was made from old rags about 1250; gunpowder dates from the year 1330; printing, that valuable aid to the arts, 1430; watches are said to have been first made in England about the year 1500; and the first coach was seen in England in the year 1555, three hundred and twenty years ago.
The history of coaches and carriages is not as extensive as the human race, nor can it be traced among all those nations that have arrived at an advanced stage of civilisation. Ancient America, especially the civilised Mexico, tells us nothing; from China and Japan we gain next to nothing; and only a strip of North Africa contributes to the history of wheels. Europe, Asia Minor, Hindostan, and Tartary furnish nearly all the information we can glean.
The history of the art of Coachmaking must be divided into several marked epochs. The first terminates with the change of government at Rome from the rule by Consuls to the rule by Emperors, about 2000 years ago. Up to this time there had been little variation in the vehicles chiefly used. The second epoch terminates with the overturning of the Roman empire, about 1500 years ago; during that epoch, which was one marked by the display of great wealth, and the indulgence of most luxurious living, several new and larger vehicles were introduced, and many were decorated in a costly manner.
The third epoch commences with the introduction of vehicles slung upon leather straps, and may be considered to end about the year 1700, when the use of steel springs began to be understood.
The fourth epoch will end in 1790, when coaches began to assume their present form, size, and style.
And the last epoch must commence with the introduction of carriages hung wholly on elliptic springs, about 1805, by Mr Obadiah Elliott. This last and surprising change has been productive of very important results to all interested in the use of carriages or in Coachbuilding.
By the introduction of elliptic springs the construction of wheeled vehicles has been rendered less costly, their weight has been materially reduced, and many complicated parts have been abandoned. Simultaneously the number of vehicles has been multiplied, and their comfort and accommodation have been increased.
We may fairly suppose the first means of locomotion entitled to the name of a carriage to have been a sledge. It would be so natural to place a burden, too heavy for the shoulders, on some slight framework, and drag it over the ground. A very little experience would enable a man to judge of the best form for a sledge; and, in point of fact, the first sledge of which we find any record, on a sculpture of the Temple of Luxor, at Thebes, in Egypt, is precisely similar to that used by brewers’ draymen in London. It has two long runners slightly turned upwards in front, and half-a-dozen cross pieces to unite the runners and bear the burden.
Sledges of many shapes and fashions are in use during the winter in most countries where snow lies for any length of time upon the ground, as sledges glide more easily over its surface than do wheels. The Esquimaux and the Laplanders habitually use sledges, all more raised from the ground than the sledge that carries the casks of the brewers. The Swiss and other inhabitants of mountain districts use sledges to bring down hewn timber and faggots to the valleys; and a hundred years ago, when carts were not so numerous, it was common in England to load the new-made hay or sheaves of wheat on light high sledges for transport to the farm yard. In North America and Northern Europe, sledges of elegant shape are every year in use; and in Holland and Belgium, during some winters, not only do the gentry ride in sledges two or three months, but the meat, bread, and vegetables are run through the streets daily on hand sledges.
Egypt is the chief of the countries of which we have any record of the arts and manufactures introduced by the progress of civilisation. Egypt had, at an early period, buildings composed of very large stones; in moving these the sledge and the roller were used; and it is natural that these should be combined to form a low truck or platform moving on rollers. Later on, wheels and axles were substituted for rollers; at first wheels were slices of the trunk of a tree, all solid pieces of wood, and firmly wedged to the axles. Thus the wheels and axle revolved together below the cart or truck, and were retained in their position by strong wooden pins like the thole-pins or rowlocks of a boat. The wheels and axle revolve together in tramway cars and in railway carriages. Carts are made in this way now in Portugal, Spain, and in South America. All the earlier carts seem to have been fitted only with a pole, and at least two animals seem always to have been yoked together to the vehicle. The objection to the wheels and axle in one piece is, that it is difficult to turn a vehicle thus fitted in a small space. Any one using a garden-roller round a corner may easily convince himself of this, for whilst the outer edge of the roller is going over the necessary sweep, the inner edge is sliding on and crushing the gravel walk; it should be moving independently. It was soon discovered in Egypt that it was better to have a fixed axle-tree, and allow the wheels to revolve independently of one another.
A wheeled carriage appears to have been in very general use in Egypt at an early period, called a car or chariot: in the Bible it is usually translated “chariot.” There are paintings and sculptures upon the walls of the temples and tombs of Egypt which have lasted four thousand years, and from those we learn precisely the appearance of these chariots. They are of great interest to us, as they formed the chief means of conveying man for two thousand years before Christ, and were more or less the type of all other vehicles of the ancient world.
We find certain words used in describing them, both by Homer, who lived a thousand years before Christ, and by Moses, who lived at least five hundred years earlier, and that the words are technical terms, such as axles, wheels, naves, felloes, tyres, spokes, &c. Now technical terms imply that the art that had such terms must have existed prior to the writer who speaks of the art, so that, if we hesitated as to the date of the chariots sculptured and painted on the walls of the Egyptian temples, we are reassured by the terms used by the authors we name. Moses, in the description of the wheels upon which moved the great cauldron used by the priest, and Homer, in describing the car of the goddess Juno, used the same terms. We read in the fifth book of the Iliad, “The awful Juno led out the golden-bitted horses, whilst Hebe fitted the whirling wheels on the iron axles of the swift chariot. The wheels had each eight brazen spokes, the felloes were of gold secured with brazen tyres all round, admirable to the sight. The seat was of gold, hung by silver cords; the beam (or pole) was of silver, at the end of which was hung the golden yoke and the golden reins.”
These cars [Plate 1, Figure 1] were occasionally square, but more generally semicircular or horse-shoe shaped; the rounded front towards the horses was high, the sides lower, the back was open, and the bottom was near the ground, so that it was easy to step in and out. The wheels, especially in Egypt, were very low, from 2 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. 3 in. in height. The framework of the body was often open, but sometimes closed up with leather skins or basket-work, and occasionally with carved wood or embossed metal. The pole by which it was supported curved up from the bottom of the bar to the backs of the necks of the horses or oxen, where it was joined to a wooden yoke, this was again strapped round the bodies and necks of the horses, or tied to the horns of the oxen. The addition of bridles and reins would complete the simple harness. Some horses were attached to the pole by an iron bar with knobs at each end, which passed through a ring at the end of the pole, and through a similar ring upon each of the pads or saddles of the horses. This would be very similar to the curricle bars used in modern times, and would allow of more
freedom in motion than a fixed yoke would give. The bodies of these chariots, in Egypt at least, were small, usually containing but two persons standing upright. It may be remarked that, as they were so small, they could not have been of much use, and from the small size of the wheels, too, they would be jolted by every little obstacle on the road; and as they were so near the ground, those using them would be exposed to mud and dirt: yet, in spite of these objections, they were used in vast numbers. They were very light, and could be driven at a great speed—nearly as fast as the horses could gallop. They were narrow, and, therefore, suitable to cities in which the streets are still very narrow, and to mountain roads which were often only 4 ft. wide. They suited the period and the people, or their usefulness would not have lasted 2000 years. According to Homer, a strong man could lift a chariot on his shoulders and carry it away. Possibly this would be without the wheels, but even then it could not have been heavier than one of our wheel-barrows.
From Egypt the use of chariots spread into other countries, and they were used in war in large numbers upon the extensive plains of Asia. We read of the 900 chariots of Jabin, king of Canaan; that David took 700 chariots from the kings of Syria, and 1000 from the king of Zobah. Solomon had 1400 chariots, and his merchants supplied northern Syria and the surrounding countries with chariots fetched up out of Egypt at 600 shekels (about £50) a-piece. They were not the first nor the last merchants who have preferred their pockets to their patriotism, and supplied nations who might become their country’s enemies with the weapons of warfare. Solomon, we find, in the Song of Solomon, built a state or wedding chariot of cedar with pillars of gold, probably supporting a canopy. We may also notice the poetic description by the prophet Nahum of the future state of Nineveh, no longer to echo “to the noise of the chariots raging up and down the paved streets, jostling against one another in the broad ways, with the crack of the whip, the rattle of the wheels, the prancing horses and the jumping chariots;” and the remark in another place of “the stamping of strong horses, the rushing of the chariots, and the rumbling of the wheels,” all pointing to the great impression which was made upon the prophet of the wilderness by the carriages and noise of the crowded city.
In a museum of New York is a wheel of an Egyptian chariot, found in a mummy pit at Dashour, by Dr Henry Abbott. It is 3 ft. 3 in. high, the nave is 14½ in. long, and 5 in. in diameter, and worked upon an axle of wood which tapered, and was from 3 in. to 2¾ in. in diameter. The unusual size and length of this axle-arm would be very apparent in so small a vehicle as the Egyptian chariot; the spokes, six in number, are 2 in. by 1⅜ in. at the nave, and taper towards the felloe to 1⅜ in. round; it has a double rim all round. The six inner felloes do not meet as in modern wheels, but are spliced one over the other, with an overlap of 3 in.; the felloes are 1½ in. square. The outer rim is formed also of six felloes, but they are tenoned together, and are pierced all round the lower edge with small holes, through which, we may well conjecture, leather thongs passed, binding the outer to the inner rim. The total depth of the double rim is 3¼ in. by 1¼ in. to 1½ in. in width.
From the ancient sculptures preserved from Nineveh and Babylon, some of which are in the British Museum, we observe the use of chariots was continued in the great plains, for the purposes of hunting as well as for war. The chariots of Assyria were larger than those of Egypt, and would carry three or more persons; they seem, too, much heavier in the build.
The Greeks used chariots, and at the siege of Troy, which Homer has immortalised in his poem, all the chief warriors on both sides are described as going into battle and fighting from their chariots. As years passed on, however, the Greeks no longer used chariots for war, but only for processions in public on state occasions, or in their great races, or for the amusement of their leisure hours. Erectheus, king of Athens, is reported to have been the first to drive four horses in a car; afterwards it became common to use, in the races, four horses attached to each car. The Grecian chariots were all curved in front, and were rather larger and on higher wheels than those used in Egypt. [Plate 1, Figure 2.]
The Roman nation, as it increased in power, adopted the car, which had also been for many years in use by the Etrurians, a neighbouring country to their own in the Italian peninsula. The Etrurians were traditionally the first to place a hood or awning over the open two-wheeled car; they decorated both the car and the awning with that beautiful tracery and ornamental bordering which is familiar to us from the copies of their pottery. The Roman car was chiefly used in the cities, and for purposes of show and state rather than for daily use. A beautiful marble model of one of these still exists at the Vatican in Rome; a copy of it and the horses drawing it is in the Museum at South Kensington. [Plate 1, Figure 3.]
Besides the chariots the Romans had other two-wheeled cars, and four-wheeled waggons of different shapes, and giving different accommodation; but first they were kept for conveying agricultural produce, and for moving goods and baggage, and the better sorts were reserved for the conveyance of the images of their gods and vestal virgins in religious processions. Then came the triumphal processions of successful military commanders, and a variety of vehicles conveyed the conqueror, the captives, and the arms and valuables taken from the enemy. Plutarch tells us that Emilius, the Roman Consul, had 750 waggons in his triumph in the year 170 B.C., bearing the spoils of Perseus, last king of Macedonia. On the column of Trajan at Rome is modelled one of these waggons. It is a large square basket on four wheels, the back a little higher, and the hind wheels also are a very little higher than the front.
Roman history, of the time of Camillus, 350 B.C., mentions a carriage termed a Pilentum, as a splendid four-wheeled carriage with a covering to it, and with seats suspended by straps. The use of these Pilenta was allowed as a special favour to a few great Roman ladies. The Empress Agrippina also had a Carpentum, an elegantly carved carriage on two wheels, the arched covering of which was supported by four female statues; it was drawn by two mules. The Romans also used Basternæ, which were litters or couches with low coverings, carried on poles by horses or mules; and Lecticæ, or litters carried by men only. The Roman chariot was called a Currus.
Herodotus (450 B.C.), and other writers tell us of the vehicles of the ancient Scythians. These were a race of people who inhabited the country near the Caspian Sea, and wandered about with large herds of cattle and horses. They used a rough two-wheeled cart which consisted of a platform, on which they placed a covering shaped like a bee-hive, and composed of basket-work of hazel-wood covered with skins of beasts or thatched with reeds. When they were stationary in any part these bee-hive huts were taken off the carts and placed upon the ground to serve as their dwellings, like gipsy tents.
The war-chariots used by the Persians were larger and more unwieldy than those previously built. The idea seems to have been to form a sort of turret upon the car, from which several warriors might shoot or throw their spears. These chariots were provided with curved blades or scythes projecting from the axle-trees. The Persians had also cars that were used for state processions, in which the king or noble was raised above the crowd among which he passed on a sort of throne of many steps.
The Dacians, who inhabited Wallachia on the Danube and part of Hungary, were conquered by the Romans about the year 300. Their cars are sculptured upon Roman monuments, and resemble the Persian cars. They are on two wheels and drawn by two horses; the shape is that of a large square box or chest, with a smaller box upon it, which formed a seat for the passengers. The spokes of the wheels are six in number, and are widest at the ends supporting the rims of the wheels. A Dacian car of this sort is represented upon a fragment of terra cotta in the British Museum.
Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, invaded Asia and advanced to India; he was met upon the banks of the river Indus by King Porus, in whose army were a number of elephants of large size, and also several thousand chariots; each chariot carried six persons; but the historian notes that in a soft soil or in rainy weather it was difficult for these vehicles to move quickly. On Alexander’s return from India towards Persia, he travelled in a chariot drawn by eight horses, on which a square stage or platform was erected and covered in by a tent. His car was followed by an innumerable number of others, covered with rich carpets and purple coverlets; some shaped like shells or cradles were shaded with the branches of trees. I have seen a drawing of a Persian car in which the body is raised above the wheels and seems to swing from pivots like a large cradle, or such a cot as is used on board ship.
After Alexander’s death a funeral car was prepared
to convey his body from Babylon to Alexandria, in Egypt, a distance of several hundred miles, which car perhaps has never been excelled in the annals of coachbuilding. It was prepared during two years, and was designed by the celebrated architect and engineer, Hieronymus. It was 18 feet long and 12 feet wide, on four massive wheels and drawn by sixty-four mules, eight abreast. The car was composed of a platform with a lofty roof supported by eighteen columns, and was profusely adorned with drapery and gold and jewels; round the edge of the roof was a row of golden bells; in the centre was a throne, and before it the coffin; around were placed the weapons of war and the armour that Alexander had used. This car was thought so much of that several historians have described it, and there are various plans of its appearance, one of which may be seen in Ginzrot’s work on ancient carriages in the British Museum library.
The second epoch of the history of carriages I take to commence at the invasion of Belgium and Britain by the Romans. The ancient Britains had used a car for warlike purposes which was evidently new to the Romans. [Plate No. 2.] It was on higher wheels than their cars, it was open in front, and was ascended in the front, instead of, as in their cars, at the back; the pole, instead of sloping up to the horses’ necks, went straight out between the horses’ bodies, and was broad, so that the driver of the car could stand on it, and if necessary, drive from the end of the pole, or leap out and stand before his horses. It was larger than a Roman car, and above all it possessed a seat, and was called essedum from this peculiarity. At times this car was furnished with scythes, which projected from the axle-tree ends. No doubt the same or a similar car was used by the Gauls and Belgians; but the British essedum was the best; and Cicero, writing to a friend in Britain, remarks “that there appeared to be very little worth bringing away from Britain except the chariots, of which he wished his friend to bring him one as a pattern.”
When Cassibelaunus was taken prisoner by the Romans, they also captured six hundred cars and four thousand essedarii, or car-drivers and warriors. I think we may look upon this vehicle as the origin of the curricle of later years. It is certain that it attracted great notice among the Romans, and under its own name, essedum, and with another of a smaller size and with still higher wheels called cisium, became the chief and most rapid vehicles upon the public roads, whether in Italy itself, or along the military roads already made into France, Spain, or Germany. Despatches and letters were conveyed with speed and punctuality to the more distant parts of the Roman Empire. The historian Suetonius mentions that the Emperor Augustus established on the military roads active young men at first, and afterwards carriages, to convey his despatches to the governors of the provinces. Besides these rapid conveyances along the public roads, there was the rheda, a slow sort of waggon drawn by six or eight mules. Buildings were erected along the main road where these different carriages could be hired. Cicero declares that a message was sent fifty-six miles in a cisium in ten hours. On a monumental column at Ingel, near Treves, is the representation of two persons riding in a cisium with one horse. The vehicle is very much like a gig.
Under the Emperors of Rome, the number of kinds and shapes of vehicles increased; but from the vague manner in which the writers of the period speak of them, it is difficult to enter into minute descriptions. The height of the wheels increased. At the capital of Rome, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius is represented in a car of triumph, the wheels of which are as high as the backs of the horses. Sir William Gell, in his work on the ancient city of Pompeii, which was destroyed in the year A.D. 79, mentions that three wheels had been dug out of the ruins in his day—very much like our modern wheels—a little dished, and 4 ft. 3 in. high, with ten spokes, rather thicker at each end than in the middle. Sir W. Gell also gives a well-known picture of a cart used for conveyance of wine in a huge skin or leathern bag; it is a four-wheeled cart, with an arch in the centre for the front wheel to turn under. The pole in this painting appears to end in a fork, and to be attached to the axle-bed. As the wealth of the Romans increased so did their desire to use comfortable and highly-decorated carriages. For many years what are called “sumptuary laws” existed, which regulated each citizen’s dress, furniture, and ornaments, according to his rank and consequence, and these laws restrained the decorations upon private carriages.
The Emperor Alexander Severus, however, issued a decree, “that anyone might decorate his car as he pleased;” and the number of vehicles in use rapidly increased. We find upon monuments many different shaped cars of the time of the Emperors, chiefly processional cars, lofty and highly ornamented, evidently adorned with embossed and chased work in metal, rich carvings, drapery and cushions. On the columns of Theodosius, at Constantinople, are some specially handsome cars on two and on four wheels, with door-like openings in the sides of a square shape. On the arch of Constantine, at Rome, are several cars. Sufficient evidence, however, exists, that for nearly 500 years, during the reign of the different Emperors of Rome, the art of Coachbuilding must have been a good and important business. Besides the ordinary artizans, the woodmen, the wheelwrights, and the smiths, there must have been plenty of employment for the carvers, painters, chasers, embossers, embroiderers, and trimmers.
Homer, as I have mentioned, tells us that the seat of Juno’s car was slung upon cords, to lessen the vibration and jolting attendant upon a car without springs or braces; and it is certain that the Roman Emperors were not better off for comfort and ease than Juno was, unless we except one sort of carriage which is described as borne on long poles, fixed to the axles. Now a certain amount of spring can be obtained from the centre of a long light pole. The Neapolitan Calesso, the Norwegian Carriole, and the Yarmouth Cart, were all made with a view to obtaining ease by suspension on poles between bearings placed far apart. In these the seat is placed midway between the two wheels and the horse, on very long shafts, which are thus made into wooden springs. In the old Roman carriages the weight was carried between the front and hind axles, on long poles or wooden springs. The under-carriage of the later four-wheeled vehicles used by the Romans was, in all probability, the same as is in use in the present day, both in this country and on the Continent, and in America, for the under-carriages of agricultural waggons. There is a work on the subject of ancient carriages which was published at Munich in 1817; it was prepared by John Christian von Ginzrot, who was an inspector in the office of the Master of the Horse of the King of Bavaria. A few copies of this work exist still, but only in the German language, and not easily accessible to the public. This author gives the Greek and Latin names for the pole, perch, wheel-plate, and other technical terms of carriages so fully as to leave no doubt that coach-building was well understood by the Romans. He also gives a plan of a four-wheeled dray [Plate 4], used by the Romans for conveying casks of wine, which is identical with the drays used now in Vienna and Munich. If his authorities be sound, we may be satisfied that the art of coachbuilding, as far as the under-carriage works, and the making of agricultural waggons, was as forward in the days of the Cæsars of Rome as it is to this day in central Germany.
We will, however, quit ancient carriages for those now used in Asia. In Hindostan are a great number of vehicles of native build. It has been frequently remarked that there is little change in the Eastern fashions, that tools and workmen are precisely as they were a thousand years ago, and the work they produce is precisely the same. In examining what is done now by Indian coachbuilders, we are probably noticing carriages of a similar, if not identical, sort with those in use three thousand years ago. The commonest cart in Hindostan is called “hackery” by Europeans; it is on two wheels with a high axletree-bed, and a long platform, frequently made of two bamboos, which join in front and form the pole, to which two oxen are yoked; the whole length is united by smaller pieces of bamboo tied together, not nailed. In France, two hundred years ago, there was a similar cart, but the main beams terminated in front in shafts; in neither the cart of India nor of France were there any sides or ends; the French cart is called “Haquet;” it is probable that the French, who were in India as well as ourselves, may have given the term “hackery” to the native cart, which was so like their own. The native name, however, is “Gharry.” Other carts have sides made by stakes driven into the side beams; the wheels are sometimes of solid wood, or even of stone. Wheels are also made by a plank with rounded ends, and two felloes fitted on to complete the circle. Again, wheels are made like ours, and also with six or eight spokes, which are placed in pairs, each pair close to and parallel with one another.
If a carriage for the rich is required the underworks are like those of a cart, but the pole is carefully padded and ornamented with handsome cloths or velvet; the