At Vienna there is also to be seen a horse litter of this period [Plate 21], which is interesting as another specimen of a small vis-à-vis coach with glass windows. In shape it exactly resembles the coaches on the arms of the Coach and Coach-harness Makers’ Company of the City of London. [Plate 22.] It is a singular instance of the length of time that some old patterns exist, that this horse-litter exactly resembles the shape of the sedan chairs still in use at the public baths at Ischl, in Austria—that is, if this litter were cut in half, you would have two sedan chairs. It is said that the Spanish wife of the Emperor Ferdinand III. rode in a glass carriage, so small as to contain two persons only, as early as 1631. It is possible that this horse-litter may be the carriage spoken of. Glass was in common use then for windows; but plate-glass, such as was used for State coaches in 1700, was not made at all in England until 1670.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, among the wealthier classes, decoration was applied to coaches to an extent that would surprise us now-a-days. Wheels were again ornamented, as in the times of the old Roman empire; the spokes were shaped and carved, the rims moulded, and the naves highly embossed. The panels had beautiful paintings upon them; sometimes the whole was the subject of a picture in which a landscape and figures appeared, sometimes surrounded with a continuous ribbon border of flower work, or the panels were divided into squares or diamonds of diaper work, each little partition bearing a flower or device. The inside linings were of brocaded silk or velvet.
But all this century the use and number of coaches in England was increasing, and at length the value of springs in lessening the weight of coaches was fully understood; and this demands a short explanation. First it was found that when the body was suspended upon springs, the vibration, and consequently the wear and tear of not only the body, but in a degree of the underworks or carriage, was reduced, and the entire amount of timber used could be safely diminished, and with it the load behind the horses. And secondly, when the wheels had to be pulled over an obstacle or out of a ditch, the weight of the entire coach had not to be lifted as formerly, since the elasticity of the spring allowed the wheel to rise without lifting all the body and its passengers with it. It is of importance to understand this clearly, and anyone may convince himself by watching the motion of two loaded carts over a bad road, one having springs and the other being without them.
In Mr Samuel Pepys’ diary during the year 1665, we find on May 1st, “After dinner I went to the tryall of some experiments about making of coaches go easy. And several we tried, but one did prove mighty easy [not for me to describe here, further than that the whole of the body lies upon one long spring], and we all one after another rid in it, and it is very fine, and likely to take.” (This may have been a Berlin car.)
On September 5th he writes, “After dinner comes Colonel Blunt in his new chariot made with springs, as that which was made of wicker, and wherein a while ago we rode at his house. And he hath rode he says now, this journey, many miles in it with one horse, and outdrives any coach, and so easy he says. So for curiosity I went in it to try it, and up the hill to the heath, and over the cart ruts, and found it pretty well, but not so easy as he pretends.”
In 1666, January 22nd, “I went with Dr Wilkins, Mr Hook, Lord Brouncker, and others, to Colonel Blunt’s, to consider again of the business of chariots, and to try their new invention, which I here saw Lord Brouncker ride in, where the coachman sits astride upon a pole over the horse, but do not touch the horse, which is a pretty odd thing.”
In 1668, November 5th, Mr Pepys went with Mr Perry all the afternoon among the Coachmakers in Cow-lane, and “did pitch upon a little chariot, whose body was framed but not covered, it being very light, and will be very genteel and sober.”
December 2nd, “Abroad with my wife, the first time that I ever rode in my own coach.”
In 1669, April 19th, “Calling about my coach which hath been to the Coachmakers to be painted and the window frames gilt again.” We see from this entry that in 1669 coaches were made in England already with glass windows.
April 30th, “To the Coachmaker’s, and find many ladies sitting in the body of a coach, which must be finished by to-morrow, the Lady Marquess of Winchester and Lady Bellasis eating of bread and butter and drinking of ale; my coach is silvered over, but no varnish yet laid. I stood by it till at eight at night, and saw the painters varnish it, and it dries almost as fast as it can be laid on. I sent the same night my coachman and horses to fetch the coach home;” and on May 1st, “At noon to dinner, and after through the town with our new liveries of serge, and the horses’ manes and tails tied up with red ribbons, and new green reins.”
Sedan chairs came into fashion in England in 1634, and were in general use by the middle of the century. The alteration in the form of the coach, from the long barge shape of Charles I.’s time to that of Charles II. was, no doubt, suggested by the shape of the sedan chair, in London as well as in Germany.[2] The improvements mentioned by Mr Pepys show that coaches were being altered, but the progress of springs was slow. We appear, in England, to have taken the lead, in at the same time introducing springs and lessening the weight of coaches. In 1770, an elaborate treatise on Coachmaking was published at Paris by the Academy of Arts, written by Mons. Roubo. In this work we find that even at Paris then, springs were not at all universal. They were applied to the four corners of a perch carriage, and placed upright, and at first only clipped in the middle to the posts of the earlier carriages, and the leather braces went from the tops of the springs to the bottoms of the bodies, without any long iron loops such as we now
use; and, as the braces were very long, we find that complaints were made of the excessive swinging, tilting, and jerking of the body. Another method of the application of springs was beneath the body. The Queen’s coach is thus suspended. Four elbow-springs, as we should call them, were fastened to the bottom of the body [Plate 19, Figure 2], but again the ends did not project beyond the bottom, and the braces were still kept too long; Mons. Roubo doubts whether springs were of much use.
It seems clear from this work, that one hundred years ago the art of Coachbuilding was in some respects equal to that of the present day. Their timber was carefully selected and dried, the bodies were framed and panelled, the shape, and curves, and side sweep, and turn-under was regulated by very careful drawings, the grooves for the blinds and glasses were well made. Blinds were made both panelled, perforated, and to open, just the same as those which we call venetian blinds, and a fourth sort with fixed open slats, as are now used in Turkey and India. Panels were then, as now in France, chiefly of walnut-wood, and M. Roubo describes the method of curving them by wetting one side and exposing the other to a hot fire. He also gives designs for the various tools used by the woodmen and the smiths. He enumerates the various classes of workmen, including painters and trimmers, and adds “all these are independent workmen, yet who should have a knowledge of one another’s work, that the work of one hinders not the work of another, their mutual knowledge should concur in the acceleration and perfection of the whole.”
Coaches at this period were hung comparatively high, being necessarily above the perch. Berlin Coaches or Vis-à-vis were hung between two perches, and therefore nearer to the ground. The body of some Berlins also had a solid top or roof, but the sides and ends were of leather, which could be rolled up to admit of more air. These may have given the idea of a singular carriage which preceded the Landau. [Plate 23.] Some coaches had windows in the side quarters. A few were still made to hold eight persons inside. The shapes admitted of considerable variety; the elbow line was straight or in three or four curves; the quarters either what we call the britchka quarters, or a concave single sweep from the elbow to the end of the bottom side, like the shape of Her Majesty’s State Coach. Chariots were made with the hind quarter similar in shape to the front pillar, that is with a concave sweep. M. Roubo goes on to tell us that chariots, being smaller than coaches and lighter, were at first called diligences. But in consequence of the speedy passage of a stage coach from Paris to Lyons, it obtained the name of diligence, which has since remained to those large double coaches still in use on the Continent. We also find the drawing of an invalid or Dormeuse coach, very ingeniously contrived, and descriptions of the different summer open carriages, some with and some without springs; there are a few of really elegant shapes. He enumerates
chaises, phaetons, cabriolets, caleches, “Anglaises desobligeants” (or what we should call sulkies, that would only contain one person), lastly and the wourst, a vehicle introduced from Germany for sporting, and which is a Russian drosky, but very much longer than those we have seen in England, there is a crane neck in the perch to allow the wheel to turn, and the seat, which is hung on braces, is very narrow, for the passengers to sit on it astride.
M. Roubo describes at length, and gives a plan of the Anglaise. It is a chariot, with the modern curved lower quarter panel suspended upon a double swan-necked perch, rather high front wheels, and four whip springs, and with a small hammer-cloth in front. [Plate 24.] There is one very similar preserved in the Museum of the Hotel Cluny at Paris. But on this vehicle M. Roubo remarks, “I see no beauty nor grace in the voiture à l’Anglaise, but it is no doubt sufficient that the invention of this vehicle comes from England, to make all the world desire to have them, as if there existed some law which obliges us to be the servile imitators of a nation who is our rival, and which, although it is respectable, and admirable even, in some respects, can never be equal to us for works of taste in general, and above all in Coachbuilding.”
Whilst we may smile at M. Roubo’s jealousy, we must allow the general truth of what he says, viz., that in works in which taste reigns paramount, the French do usually surpass the English; and as regards Coachbuilding, although we have the name for superior vehicles, and deservedly so as regards quality, durability, and ease, the French are beyond us in applying tasteful painting, trimming, and decoration of all sorts.
In the French Encyclopædia of 1772, by Diderot, there are elaborate descriptions of the art of Coachbuilding, the workshops and tools used, and plates of the different carriages in use. I have mentioned these two works, one by M. Diderot on his own account, and the other by M. Roubo for the French Academy, partly to shew the great care taken by our neighbours to instruct the people in the technical principles on which their manufactories should be conducted. It may be that having these superior models before their eyes, and being assured by the wise men of the day that thus carriages should be constructed, the French Coachbuilders were content with their achievements, and allowed other nations to advance more rapidly, during the remainder of the century, with daring innovations in lighter and easier vehicles.
But the teaching of the Academy would nevertheless tend to create a careful and thoughtful body of workmen, who, if they developed but slowly, would develop carefully, and turn out good work in their generation.
There is one vehicle which appears almost solely in this epoch, and had a marked effect in introducing our English post-chaise. This was the chaise de poste. [Plate 25].
From the engraving and description in the Encyclopædia it appears to have been a small chariot body, very little longer than a sedan chair, and like a sedan chair, it had the door in front; this door was hinged at the bottom, and fell forward on to a small dasher like a gentleman’s cabriolet; there was a window in each side. It was hung upon two very lofty wheels and long shafts for one horse, and the body was rather in front of the wheels, so that the weight on the horse’s back must have been considerable. It was suspended at first upon leather braces only, but later upon two upright or whip springs behind, and two elbow springs in front from the body to the cross-bar, which joined the shafts and carried the steps.
Count Gozzadini tells us that in 1672 Cabriolets, or gigs with hoods, were introduced from Paris into Florence—“an affair with a curved seat fixed on two long bending shafts, placed in front on the back of a horse and behind upon two wheels; to this was given the name of gig, and they so increased in number that in a few years there were nearly a thousand in the city of Florence.”
These vehicles, in which the shafts were really very long, appear to be the origin of the carriole of Norway, the calesso of Naples, and the volante of Cuba. In the Museum at South Kensington we have a specimen of one of these, adorned with much elegant carving. It has no hood. The seat is very small. Beneath the shafts are two long straps of leather and a windlass to tighten them; this apparatus was, no doubt, to regulate the spring of the vehicle to the road travelled over.
There was a small-sized vehicle in use called Cabriolet, the body only a shell, with a hood which would put up and down, composed of three iron hoopsticks, jointed in the middle to fall upwards; the setting joints are straight, the covering appears to have been cloth or canvas.
Although these French books appeared about 1770, they describe carriages that had been a long time in use.
In the meantime the English had been making a great many small chariots. Dean Swift, in 1770, speaks in his journal of driving down to Hampton Court and to several gentlemen’s country houses near London in a chariot and pair of horses, to dine with some great man, and returning after dinner to town. He mentions that he could not have done the same in the neighbourhood of Dublin on account of the absence of turnpike roads. He drove from Windsor to London, twenty-three miles, in two hours and forty minutes, and from Wycombe to London, twenty-seven miles, in five hours, and from Windsor to Bucklebury, near Newbury, twenty-six miles, in four hours.
In 1744 Lady Hervey wrote in her “Letters,” that light-bodied chariots were then advertised as fit for town or country. As a further illustration of this period, there is a chariot in the South Kensington Museum belonging to the Earl of Darnley’s family, which is supposed to have been built in 1750. I should think it is of rather earlier date, probably 1700. The body is small, and abounds in curves and sweeps like furniture of the date of Louis XIV. The glasses of the doors and of the front rise and fall in frames. There is a broad perch, with two iron handsomely-forged cranes (exactly like those in the diligence Anglaise, which, unfortunately, did not please M. Roubo). The body is slung upon leather buckle braces, with small elbow springs at the bottom of the body at the hinder part. There is a small hammer-cloth on which the coachman could sit (the origin of the name is supposed to be from its original use in covering the budget which held the hammer and other tools that were frequently carried with carriages, especially travelling carriages, as late as the year 1840); the footboard is framed to the carriage part. There is a splinter-bar, by which the horses would be attached, and the wheel-irons hook on to this bar, and are attached at the hinder part to the ends of the front axletree. The front wheels are 2 ft. 9 in. high, and the number of spokes eight. The hind wheels have twelve spokes, and are 5 ft. high. The whole is hung low. We can well suppose that this was not a heavy carriage after the horses.
When the first coach quarters were covered with leather, they were nailed on and the heads showed. After 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.
The use of coaches had by this time spread from Europe to the colonies, and in 1740 there were many coaches and chariots in use at Spanish Town, Jamaica, and other large towns in America, wherever colonised by Europeans.
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.
IN Count Gozzadini’s work on Ancient Carriages there is an account of a State Coach which was built under the direction of an Italian at Brussels, for the ceremony of the marriage of Alexander, the son of Octavius Farnese, Duke of Parma, with a Portuguese princess. The wedding took place in 1565 at Brussels. There were four carriages Flanders fashion, and four coaches after the Italian fashion, swinging on leather braces. The chief, or state coach, is described as built in the most beautiful manner, with four statues at the ends, the spokes of the wheels like fluted columns. There were seraphims’ heads at the ends of the roof and over the doorway, and festoons of fruit in relief on the framing of the body. The coachman was supported by two carved figures of lions, two similar lions were at the hind end, and the leather braces that supported the body and the harness were embossed with heads of animals. The ends of the steps were serpents’ heads. The whole of the wood and ironwork was covered with gold, relieved with white. The coach was drawn by four horses, with red and white plumes of feathers, and the covering of the body and of the horses was gold brocade with knotted red silk fringe. The cushions of embroidered gold stuff were perfumed “with amber and musk, that infused the soul of all who entered the coach with life, joy, and supreme pleasure.” The horses were cream colour. All this description would fit very much with the coach of the Duke of Saxe Coburg built twenty years later [Plate No. 10], except that the carving of the Brussels coach was superior, which is probably due to Capt. Francisco Marchi, of Bologna, who designed the whole.
A State Coach on a far more ambitious scale is described in the same work, which was built in Italy, for the marriage of Duke Edward Farnese with Lady Margaret of Tuscany in 1629. The body was lined with crimson velvet and gold thread, and the woodwork covered with silver plates, chased and embossed and perforated, in half relief. It could carry eight persons: four on the seats attached to the doors, and four in the back and front. The roof was supported by eight silver columns, on the roof were eight silver vases, and unicorns’ heads and lilies in full relief projected from the roof and ends of the body here and there. The roof was composed of twenty sticks, converging from the edge to the centre, which was crowned with a great rose with silver leaves on the outside, and inside by the armorial bearings of the Princes of Tuscany and Farnese held up by cupids. The curtains of the sides and back of the coach were of crimson velvet, embroidered with silver lilies with gold leaves. At the back and the front of the coach-carriage were statues of unicorns, surrounded by cupids and wreathed with lilies, grouped round the standards from which the body was suspended; on the tops of the standards were silver vases, with festoons of fruit, and wrought in silver. In the front were also statues of Justice and Mercy, supporting the coachman’s seat. The braces suspending the body were of leather, covered with crimson velvet; the wheels and pole were plated with polished silver. The whole was drawn by six horses, with harness and trappings covered with velvet, embroidered with gold and silver thread, and with silver buckles. It is said that twenty-five excellent silversmiths worked at this coach for two years, and used up 25,000 ounces of silver; and that the work was superintended by two master coachbuilders, one from Parma and the other from Piacenza.
An embassy was sent in the latter years of his reign by King James II. to Pope Innocent XI. at Rome, headed by Lord Castlemaine. An account was written of all the state and pomp with which he was received in Rome; a copy of this work is at the hall of the Coach and Coach-harness Makers. On Lord Castlemaine’s state entry into Rome, January 8th, 1687, a procession was formed of three hundred and thirty coaches. The ambassador had thirteen coaches of his own, in all probability built for him at Rome. Two of these were state coaches, and certainly were Roman. The bodies of these coaches were similar to that of Louis XIV., without glass in the doors or sides. They were hung inside and out with beautifully embroidered cloths, the one coach with crimson, the other with azure blue velvet, and gold and silver work. The roofs were adorned with scroll work and vases gilt; under the roof were curtains with silver fringes, and the ambassador’s armorial bearings. The carriage of the principal coach was adorned in front with two large Tritons, of carved wood, gilt all over, that supported a cushion for the coachman between them, and from their shoulders the braces depended. The foot-board was formed by a conch shell, between two dolphins. In the rear of the coach were two more Tritons, supporting not only the leather braces of the coach, but two other statues of Neptune and Cybele, who in turn held a royal crown. Below Neptune and Cybele, and projecting backwards, were a lion and a unicorn, and several cupids and wreaths of flowers. The wheels had moulded rims, and the spokes were hidden by curving foliage carving. The second coach had plainer wheels and fewer statues about it. In both, the size of the wheels were, as well as I can judge, 2 ft. 6 in. and 4 ft. high, and the length apart 12 ft. The whole appearance of these coaches may have been magnificent, but certainly not beautiful.[3]
There are a few records of a magnificent state coach that was built in 1713 for the Duke of Ossuna, ambassador from Philip V. of Spain on the occasion of making the peace of Utrecht. The body was in shape somewhat similar to Lord Darnley’s chariot at the South Kensington Museum, with the doorway projecting downwards some ten inches below the bottom sides, the quarters rake towards the roof considerably, the roof over the doorway is arched upwards, the upper quarters are fitted with large glasses of mirror plate-glass. It is elaborately and beautifully carved with figures of Tritons and Nymphs, cupids and lions. The wheels have carved spokes and felloes. It is hung upon leather braces from the usual standard posts, which are carved into figures of men and women, and the supports into figures of boys and baskets of fruit. There is a hammer-cloth cushion in front, and a footboard supported by Tritons blowing horns. The description of this coach was published at Amsterdam.
There is at Madrid a very old coach of a similar shape to this, with many small points so similar as, I think, clearly to mark it out as belonging to the same period. The standards both in front and behind of the Spanish coach are, however, of beautifully wrought scroll ironwork. The body and wheels are of carved wood stained black, the whole of the panels and framing are worked over with very elegant carving, the centre of each panel is a medallion containing figures of females of beautiful forms. There is a photograph of this at Coachmakers’ Hall. It is, however, ascribed erroneously to the time of Jeanne La Folle, as Queen Joanna, the mother of Charles V., died in 1555. It is certain that the Spanish tradition of its age is incorrect. The wheels have the spokes turned in spiral form, the rims of the wheels are moulded and carved. The windows, eight in number, I am informed, have been refitted with wooden frames. This coach is deserving of careful study; it is certainly in many points what a State Coach should be. There are no fittings for servants or driver. It was the custom for many years in Spain to drive postillion, because a coachman of the Duke of Olivarez having overheard and betrayed a state secret, the duke ordered that coachmen should no longer be allowed in Spain.
Our excellent ambassador at Madrid, who takes a great interest in antiquarian researches, has kindly sent me the particulars respecting this Spanish coach, and obtained from the king’s librarian the further information that it is not mentioned in any inventory of the royal goods until the early part of the eighteenth century; the librarian’s opinion is that the coach belonged to Charles II. of Spain, who died in 1700, and left his kingdom to Philip V., the grandson of Louis XIV., King of France. The coach in shape so closely resembles the coaches of 1700 [Plate 17], that there is no doubt it belonged either to Charles II. or Philip V., Kings of Spain.
One of the most beautiful of State Coaches is that belonging to the Imperial family at Vienna. There are photographs of it in Coachmakers’ Hall, but to be perfectly appreciated it should be seen. The proportions are almost perfect, and the finish of the mouldings and carvings is exquisite. It was built in 1696, and is shaped with all the curves that are familiar to us in cabinets and furniture of the style called Louis Quatorze, and in which a straight line is so carefully avoided. The body is very deep, and longer on the roof than at the elbows; the doorway is depressed to hide the steps. The panels are beautifully painted with nymphs in the style of Rubens; indeed, one is told at Vienna that Rubens painted them himself, but that is another instance of the inaccuracy of many local traditions, as Rubens died in 1640. There is an unusual quantity of plate-glass in the panels of the coach, that help to give it a light and airy appearance. The centre of the roof has a large Imperial crown, and large tassels hang from the four corners of the roof, where modern Coachbuilders would place lamps. The body hangs very low. The carriage has a single perch with double cranes, corresponding very closely with those on Lord Darnley’s chariot at South Kensington. The standards in the front and hind parts are lofty, elegantly shaped and carved, and strengthened with boldly curved iron stays. The body is hung upon eight leather braces, four of which are arranged on the Berlin plan, and four are attached to short elbow springs beneath the bottom of the body. There are six of these little steel springs at each corner. The wheels are about 3 ft. and 4 ft. 9 in. high, and are very elegantly formed with carved rims, and the spokes each of a shape, with three curves in it. There are no fittings for coachman or footman. The whole of the wood and ironwork is gilt, the panels only are in the colour of a landscape with figures.
It is a singular thing that there is a second coach of the same shape and date, but with the wheels and other fittings of a plainer description, and all black inside and out, with the Imperial arms in bronze relief on the doors. This black state coach is for funerals.
There were a number of state coaches built about this period for the different courts of Europe;[4] but without illustrations of each, descriptions would not give much idea of their shapes. The general character of each is that of a rather lumbering body, profusely carved, gilded, and adorned, placed on a very lumbering carriage, on some of which are introduced figures of gods and goddesses or animals, appearing to hold up the heavy body by leather braces.
The last, and probably much the largest of these, is the State Coach of England, built for King George III. It is not known who built it; it was designed by an amateur, who could not be expected, perhaps, to consider so much its usefulness as a certain massive grandeur which he expected to gain from an exaggeration of some of the principal parts, such as the body, the total length, and the hind wheels. This coach, built in 1761, was designed by Sir William Chambers; the length is 24 feet, the height 12 feet, the width 8 feet; the weight is stated as 4 tons. The introduction of the figures of four Tritons, to support the braces, is probably imitated from Lord Castlemaine’s coach of 1687, but it would have been better to have introduced such figures as leaning against the standard-posts, than to make the figures themselves the bearers. Why the coach was not hung upon C springs, or rather whip springs, it is very difficult to say, as they were in common use in 1760.
The City State Coach was built in 1757, about the same time as the royal coach. It is, in some respects, in better taste and proportions, but is very unwieldy still. It deserves some study, recollecting in how many city shows it has borne a conspicuous place. The body is the Louis Quatorze shape. The panels would look better if they were repainted; fresh colours would lighten the whole coach. It is to be regretted that the name of the builder is not on record at Guildhall. But, in the same year, a state coach was supplied to Sir Charles Asgill by Messrs Runciman and Barker for £860; it was refitted the following year for Sir Richard Glyn, and successively for Sir Thomas Chitty, Sir Matthew Blakiston, Sir Samuel Fludyer, and lastly for Mr William Beckford. It was, probably, from the original cost, only a second coach, and appears to have been newly painted and otherwise adorned for each successive Lord Mayor.
If the present City State Coach is to be kept for state use it should be supplied with springs. The city coachmaker, who has for some time had the charge of this coach, could add springs without any difficulty, and without much expense.
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.
“In the year 1790,” according to a very competent judge, a coachbuilder then alive, Mr Felton, “the art of Coachbuilding had been in a gradual state of improvement for half a century past, and had now arrived to a very high degree of perfection, with respect both to the beauty, strength, and elegance of our English carriages.” “The superior excellence, too, of English workmanship has not only been the occasion of a very great increase in their number in this country, but the exportation of them to foreign nations is become a profitable and considerable branch of British commerce.”
These statements might have been made again and again for many years after this date. Our carriages, as I will endeavour to show, have continued to improve; but no longer, I regret to have to say, are they exported in large numbers. The cost has so much increased, from the date of 1790, that foreign nations prefer to deal with manufacturers who can give them a vehicle which, to the eye, appears as good as our own, and in colours and finish is more to their taste, whilst the price is from 10 to 30 per cent. less than the British carriage.
Although I shall have occasion to treat this part of our subject in the last lecture more fully, I will here guard against misconception, by pointing out the example set us by our energetic brothers in the United States, who have secured a very large market for their carriages, even in English colonies, by building good and light vehicles at a moderate price. In confirmation of the statement of Mr Felton in 1790, we find that English carriages had been exported to the North American and West Indian Colonies as early as 1740.
To return to Mr Felton’s work. He states that the Coach trade was prosperous, and was not confined to Coachbuilders proper, but that harnessmakers and others opened repositories for the sale of carriages. This practice was not confined to England,—it was also a French custom, and so much so, that in the French Encyclopædia, Coachmaking is described under the heading of “Sellier” or “Saddler,” and even now in some towns on the Continent, one may see “Sellier” painted on the front of a coach-factory, without any other description of the trade.
The principal improvements in carriages in London from 1770 to 1790 were the invention of Mr John Hatchett, of Long-acre, whose taste in building appears to have been prominent, and other Coachbuilders generally copied him.
Mr Felton adds that many gentlemen took great pleasure and pride in getting a handsome coach built, and that his treatise was intended to aid them in forming a judgment thereon.
The following remarks are principally taken from Mr Felton’s work, as far as regards this period of 1790:—
“Carriages should always be built adapted to the places for which they are destined, whether for town, country, or the Continent; as a greater stress is laid upon the carriage in drawing over stones than on a smooth road. This makes it absolutely necessary to build stronger for the town than if intended for the country only, owing to the general goodness of our English roads; it is also necessary to build stronger for the Continent than even for the town, as the badness of their roads obliges them to use six horses where we should use two.
“The construction of every carriage should be as light as the nature of the place for which it is destined will allow. It is folly to give unnecessary weight to the horses, as the pleasure of conveyance arises from expedition and ease, which cannot be effected in a cumbersome, heavy carriage.
“A false opinion pervades the minds of many persons, which is, to build strongly, regarding the durability of the carriage in preference to the preservation of the horses. Superior strength is only effected by additions in weight of the materials used.
“In the usual meaning of the word carriage among Coachmakers, it is the lower framework on which the body containing the passengers is fixed or suspended and to which the wheels are attached. Although, speaking generally, all vehicles are called carriages, yet, in speaking technically, the distinction must be observed.
“It is the body, however, which contains the passengers, which varies most in shape and size, and which is most conspicuous to the eye, and from which, therefore, we derive the particular name of each sort of vehicle.”
In Coachbuilding, accordingly, the first process is to draw out a side view of the body, and carefully to assimilate the lines and curves to the prevailing fashion of the day. Secondly, to draw out the plan, or view from above, of the bottom and roof dimensions, with the sweep or cant lines downwards, and backwards, and forwards. The body-maker afterwards makes patterns in thin wood of all the different pieces of timber he requires; these are laid upon planks of ash timber, and marked with chalk, and sawn as nearly to the size as possible. The body-maker then proceeds to smooth one side of the pieces of wood and frame them together. It is unnecessary here to give further details of framing the body, it is sufficient to say that the chief timbers are called the bottom sides; upon them all the superstructure is raised, and upon their stability all depends; they are, therefore, of stout timber, and generally strengthened with iron plates several inches wide, and from a quarter to three-quarters of an inch thick. It is necessary to mention the bottom sides also, because we can hardly describe the shape of a body without mentioning them. The panels are of soft-grained mahogany, which was used in 1790, as well as at the present day in England; although our neighbours in France preferred then, and generally still use walnut and poplar wood for panels. The roof, bottom, and lining boards are of deal. The roof of a coach is covered with a hide of leather stretched on in a wet state.
The widths usual for the inside of bodies in those days was 3 feet 5 inches for two persons, and 4 feet to 4 feet 2 inches, for three persons on each seat. The height of the seat from the floor was 14 inches, and from the roof 3 feet 6 inches to 3 feet 9 inches. These dimensions will serve to show how little we have varied from them to the present day.
The body being planned out and in progress, the carriage underworks were prepared, and Mr Felton’s description answers to the description in most particulars of the method of building from that time to this. The axles were common axles, with a single large nut and linch-pin, such as we now use to agricultural carts and street cabs only. There were improved axle-trees, with double nuts at each end of the axle-trees and patent axles, which were not then furnished with the loose collet now used, and mail axles; all these are carefully described, and evidently very closely resembled the axles in use in 1876. The axles were strengthened by wooden additions called beds, in which the axles were recessed and clipped. The front and hind axle-beds were joined by a long timber called a perch, with wooden side-stays or wings behind. In front the under fore-carriage was joined to the perch by a large iron perch (or king) bolt. To secure a steady bearing for the upper and under carriages in locking round, a circle of iron and wood was added, termed wheel-plate in England, and the fifth wheel in America. Beneath the wheel-plate were the futchels (or fourchils) to support the splinter-bar and pole, or shafts. All these timbers were heavier in 1790 than those used in the following years; the ironwork was lighter and broke very frequently. The iron used by Coachbuilders in those days was decidedly inferior to the iron of 1830. This remark applies chiefly to the smaller pieces of iron. When a large piece of work, such as an axle-tree or a crane was required, it was forged of a number of bars, welded together, and hammered into a tough, secure mass.
The wheels were the distinguishing feature of the carriages of that day, from their great height and light appearance, and demand some consideration from us.
The extreme height of wheels extended to 5 feet 8 inches, which were made with but fourteen spokes; wheels 5 feet 4 inches high had twelve spokes; wheels 4 feet 6 inches had ten spokes; and the lowest wheels, 3 feet 2 inches high, eight spokes. The naves were of elm, the spokes of oak, and the rims or felloes of ash or beech. The rims of the higher wheels were often of bent timber, in two or more pieces, and were bolted to the tyres by one bolt
between each pair of spokes. The tyre was generally put on in pieces, the end joining in the middle of the felloe. But the better sort of wheels had the tyre put on in one piece, and called, as in the present day, “a hoop-tyre.”
“Many persons,” Mr Felton says, “prefer the common sort of wheel, on account of their being more easily repaired than the hoop-tyre wheel; but though the repairing the latter is more difficult, they are much less subject to need it.” In consequence of the great height of the wheels it was necessary to make the carriages very long, and the distance from the front to the hind axle-tree was 9 feet 2 inches in a chariot, and 9 feet 8 inches in a coach, or about 8 inches in each longer than we should think necessary now. In hackney coaches a shorter perch was customary. Crane-neck perches were still used. The springs were chiefly what is termed the whip spring, namely, an upright spring, slightly curved at the top towards the body. The same spring, if united at the point to another, became a nutcracker or elbow spring. The same united at the thick end with another became the grasshopper, or horizontal spring, and was used for gigs. The C spring was also occasionally used. There was also a small conical spring placed between the double of the braces, after the manner recommended by Mr Thomas to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, in 1703. [See Plate 28.]
Having thus described the making of the body and carriage, we naturally proceed to the product. What was the actual appearance of the coach of 1790? We are again assisted here by the existence of a coach of that period. In the museum of South Kensington may be seen the Lord Chancellor of Ireland’s coach, a large body with deep panels, flat-sided, longer on the roof than at the elbow, with windows in the upper quarters; the carriage with two crane perches, (Berlin fashion), whip springs, and very high wheels. There is no hind footboard, whilst a hammer-cloth for the coachman is raised upon scroll ironwork, very well made. The shape and appearance correspond with the designs in Mr Felton’s book, and with drawings now in the possession of the well-known firm of Barker and Co., of coaches built by their house for the Duke of Bedford and others during 1780 to 1800.
The chariot was something like the chariot of later days [Plate 38], but was made with smaller windows, deeper panels, a very shallow rocker, and with a sword-case; this was an ugly excrescence at the back of the body, to which there was an opening from behind that squab against which the shoulders rest. The sword-case was at first intended to contain weapons, too frequently required by the many highway robbers that were encountered by travellers, and for fifty years it was considered essential to almost every carriage that was built; but it was a relief to every critical eye when Coachmakers were allowed to omit it.
Landaus were originally invented about the year 1757, at the fortified town of Landau, in Western Germany.
The Landaus in 1790 [Plate 27], were like coaches in shape but made so as to open in the centre of the roof, the framework of which fell back at an angle of 45 degrees only, to allow the admission of air and the sight of the country more freely than in a coach; but for nearly fifty years there was no improvement in the method of opening and closing the top, technically termed the “hood” of the Landau.
Landaulets were chariots made to open. The hoods of both Landaus and Landaulets, and other carriages, were then made of greasy harness leather, disagreeable to touch or smell, and continually needing oil and blacking rubbed into them to keep them supple and black. This was certainly much against their popularity; but, considering that they were two carriages in one, and would serve for day and night work, and summer and winter, it is not surprising that they found a large amount of patronage.
Besides these vehicles there were phaetons, barouches, sociables, curricles, gigs, and whiskies. Of these phaetons there were several sorts, but all for self-driving by the owners. Young England, in those days especially, delighted in very lofty phaetons and fast driving. The romantic tales of this age, as well as the biographies, are full of anecdotes of adventures by upsets out of these dangerous machines, and yet of the fearful pleasure there was in driving them.
One was called the “Perch-high Phaeton.” [Plate 29]. It was shaped like a curricle, and had a leathern hood. The centre of the body was hung exactly over the front axle-tree, the bottom of the body was 5 ft. from the ground, the front wheels were 4 ft. high, and the hind wheels 5 ft. 8 in. The hind wheels were far behind, as we see them in a horse-dealer’s skeleton brake. There was a large platform board over the hind axle-tree, for servants or luggage. On such a carriage George IV., when Prince of Wales, used to drive to the race-course, or round Hyde Park. It was on such a carriage that the Hon. Col. Onslow, generally called “Tommy Onslow,” performed his feats of driving: