Another sort of phaeton, with the wheels 6 in. on 8 in. lower, and the body slung between the wheels, was used both for driving and posting. A third sort was used for small horses, with the front wheels 3 ft. 2 in, and the hind wheels 4 ft. 9 in.
Then there was a one-horse phaeton [Plate 30], the body of which was over the hind axle, and it was hung on grasshopper springs, bolted to the axle, and connected with the body by scroll-irons; the body was joined to the fore carriage, which was without springs, by wooden stays, and the wheels locked round in front of the body. This distance of the horse from the driver, though it gives but an indifferent command of his head, yet secures the passengers from the danger of his heels.
The sociable in those days was [Plate 28], in the shape of a double-cab body, made with or without doors, and with or without a driving seat. Sometimes
an open body like this sociable, and a chariot had but one under carriage between them, which was used according to the year, either with the open or the closed body.
The large two-wheeled vehicles were hung upon framed carriages with whip springs behind and elbow springs in front, like the gentlemen’s cabriolets of the present day. When drawn by two horses they were called curricles, or if by one horse, chaises [Plate 31]. There was a little variation in the shape of the body, namely, the full curricle patterns, and the half curricle with or without a boot—similar to a Tilbury or a gig body. The wheels were from 4 ft. 3 in. to 5 ft. in height. Lancewood was then used for shafts.
Another two-wheeled carriage was the Whisky [Plate 32] (or gig) the body fixed upon the shafts—which again were connected with the long horizontal springs by scroll-irons. The gig was also made with a moveable hood.
The Rib Chair was a similar vehicle, but without springs; the body had a solid board for a seat, rounded into a semi-circular form, with an upper rail of the same shape, supported by a number of small sticks hardly differing at all from the Stanhope shape of later days. This vehicle was made in the country towns for twelve pounds. The tax in 1790 upon two-wheel vehicles in general was £3, 17s. each, but if the cost was only £12, and the words “taxed cart” were painted upon the gig or cart, the yearly tax was reduced to twelve shillings, hence a very large number of these “rib chairs” came into use among the gentry; whilst farmers used a similarly cheap cart without springs, and, to obtain some slight ease, had the seat slung upon straps fastened to the side of the cart. The tax upon four-wheeled carriages was £8 16s. for the first, and £9 18s. for the second carriage, but if three or more carriages were kept, the owner had to pay a tax of £11 on each carriage.
It is difficult for a government who must raise money to so adjust the taxes as not to impede at the same time the industry of the country. Looking back now at the alterations which took place from time to time in the taxes upon carriages used and carriages hired, we can have no hesitation in saying that sufficient attention has never been given to the remonstrances of Coachbuilders and hackney carriage owners at the offices of the Inland Revenue, and that consequently the owners and users of carriages have suffered an amount of annoyance that might and should have been avoided; whilst the amount raised in taxes might have been higher if it had been more judiciously apportioned.
I have now given a description of the principal vehicles at this period of the history of English coachbuilding. I wish to add that most, if not all, were used for travelling purposes as well as for driving in the cities. By an ingenious arrangement the hammer-cloths could be removed, and the cushions on which the footmen stood behind the coach or chariot gave place to a trunk or rumble. Boxes fitted to the shape, and called imperials, were put upon the roofs. Drag-shoes and chains, tool-budgets and dragstaffs were added,
and the vehicles could then be used as a comfortable travelling carriage [Plate 38]. The curricles and phaetons were all used to carry trunks, and these are described by Mr Felton very minutely, so as to make it clear we have not much improved upon the fittings of a travelling carriage since 1790.
Looking once more at the history I have given of the state of the coach-trade in 1790, it is impossible not to be surprised at the considerable advance from the clumsy vehicles of Queen Anne and George I.’s time. But during the reigns of George II. and George III., all our manufactures had received an immense impulse from the energy of the men of the time. Discoveries were continually being made in arts and manufactures. Books were written, experiments tried, and debates held in every workshop as to the best mode of construction and arrangements of all the parts, and improvements by the artisans employed became a matter of course. It is true that, with the increased wealth of England there was an increased demand for carriages,—demand will always produce supply,—but all must admit that the supply in those days was very good, and all the varied demands were met with considerable pains and ingenuity.
In the year 1769, the Society of Arts had given sixty guineas to Mr T. Hunt for improvements in tyring wheels, and twenty guineas to Mr Joseph Jacob, of St. Mary-axe, for improved coach springs. This same Mr Jacob wrote a clever treatise on carriages in 1773; and in 1777 he repaired the city state coach. In 1772, the Society of Arts gave twenty guineas to Mr W. Bailey, for improvements in the locking of waggons; and in 1773, the Society of Arts had experiments made in the draught of carriages, and rewarded a Mr Cuthbert Clarke with fifteen guineas, for an essay on the height of wheels. Later, Dr Edgeworth, in 1816, conducted a series of interesting experiments at Dublin, with a view to ascertain the difference that high and low wheels, long and short carriages, and springs placed between the axles and the vehicles, would have upon the draught of the vehicles.
In the year 1804, Mr Obadiah Elliot, a coachmaker of Lambeth, patented his plan for hanging vehicles upon elliptical springs, thus dispensing with the heavy combined wood and iron perch and cross beds that had been invariably used in four-wheeled carriages up to that time, with the exception of a few one-horse phaetons. Elliot was rewarded by the grant of a gold medal from the Society of Arts, and extensive orders for his carriages from the public, who appreciated his important enterprise and invention.
I have a print, published by Ackermann in 1816, which shows a landaulet upon elliptical springs. There is a square boot, framed to the body, with the driving-seat on ironwork high above the boot; what are usually called the pump-handles behind are straight, and support a foot-board. The whole is upon four elliptical springs, 3 ft. 6 in. long, and with a span of 10 in. The wheels are 3 ft. 8 in. and 4 ft. 8 in. high. The body is very small, and the bottom is 3 ft 6 in. above the ground. But the centres of the axle-trees are only 6 ft. 6 in. apart.
In the same book of drawings there is a full-bodied barouche, only 5 ft. long, hung likewise high, with high wheels, and a very short carriage, with whip springs; a coach and a landau, all painted yellow, are likewise with very small bodies, and are hung high, with short carriages, and the perches nearly straight; also a mail phaeton, with a curricle-shaped body, and a rumble boot framed to it, hung upon a carriage with 3 ft. 4 in. centres, the wheels 3 ft. and 4 ft. 4 in. high, with full-shaped C springs behind, and elbow-springs and braces from a high scroll iron on the transom bed.
It is interesting to observe how the demand for light vehicles had begun to work, in decreasing the size and length in every way, and also in lowering the height of the wheels from Felton’s time. Exactly the same revolution was taking place in mail coaches. The improvements carried out in England were repeated on the continent.
In 1810 three beautiful carriages were built at Milan on the occasion of the wedding of the Emperor of Napoleon Buonaparte with the Princess Maria Louisa of Austria. These carriages are still preserved at Vienna, and consist of a state coach, a chariot, and a barouche, all upon C springs. The perches are double, Berlin fashion, with elegant cranes at each end; each perch is octagon, very well shaped, and forged out of solid iron from end to end. All three carriages are small, light, and well finished. The coach has a large crown on the roof and windows in the sides, the hammer-cloth is supported on scroll ironwork, all the decorations are in a good state and well-proportioned. At the Court of Spain are preserved two handsome coaches built for Charles IV. before 1800, with side windows, an elegant metal fretwork standing above the edge of the roof, hammer-cloths on scroll ironwork and C springs. They have iron crane Berlin perches, and are suspended upon long thick leather braces passing from the hind C springs to the front under the body without any iron loops. Photographs of these vehicles are preserved at the hall of the Coachbuilders’ Company.
I have mentioned the designs in the Carriage Fashion Book of 1816. In further illustration I can say that, in 1812, a large coachbuilder’s stock-book, which I have seen, contained over two hundred carriages, mostly let for terms of years. Of these one-half were chariots, fifty were landaus, and the remaining fifty coaches and landaulets.
In 1814, there were 23,400 four-wheel vehicles paying duty to Government; 27,300 two-wheel, and 18,500 tax-carts; a total of 69,200 carriages in Great Britain. We shall see by later returns how much these numbers have increased, by the reduction of government duties, and the introduction of elliptical springs.
A carriage was much in fashion at this period called the Curricle; it had been in use for many years in Italy; it was derived, I believe, from the British essedum, which had been adopted by the Romans. The Italians of the middle ages brought the body forward in front of the wheels, and at length suspended the body from braces; the French added springs, and the English altered the shape giving the back panel an ogee curve, and improved the hood, and now added a spring bar across the horses’ backs, rendering it a graceful and easy vehicle, which could be driven at great speed. The want of perfect safety checked its early popularity, and it was gradually superseded by the gentleman’s cabriolet with one horse, and the mail-phaeton with two horses. It was in use from 1700 to 1830. The celebrated Romeo Coates drove a curricle in the shape of a shell. Charles Dickens drove one as soon as his writings procured him the means, and Count D’Orsay and Lord Chesterfield had new curricles from Messrs Barker’s as lately as 1836.
The Coachbuilders of London of the greatest celebrity in 1815 were the large firm of Collinridge, Rowley, Mansell, and Cook, of Liquorpond Street; Windus, in Bishopgate Street, in the city of London; Barker, of Chandos Street; Hatchett, of Long Acre, Houlditch and Hankins; and Luke Hopkinson of Holborn. In 1818 Mr Windus introduced Undersprings to perch carriages. It was found that in bad roads the elliptical springs did not give sufficient ease, but the addition of horizontal springs below the C springs had the advantage of rendering the carriages not only easier but more durable, by relieving the perch and beds from the direct concussions caused by ruts and holes. About the same time concealed hinges were invented. Collinge’s patent axles, which had first been made in 1792, became more generally used; their high price had been much against them, but the advantage of carrying a supply of oil for two or three months, avoiding also the noise and rattle of the common axles (which require fresh greasing daily), gradually secured their use, and when the patent expired they were universally adopted. Now this patent axle and the mail axle are in general use throughout the civilised world.
In 1820 the greatest improvements in the shape and style in the manufacture and finish of English carriages were commenced by the celebrated Samuel Hobson, who may be truly said to have improved and remodelled every sort of carriage which came under his notice, especially as regards the artistic form and construction, both of body and carriage. He lowered the wheels of coaches and chariots to 3 ft. 3 in. in front and 4 ft. 5 in. behind, and lengthened the carriage part once more to such a true proportion to the whole vehicle as has approved itself as correct to each succeeding generation of Coachbuilders and users of carriages. He lowered the body so that it could be entered by a moderate double step instead of the three-fold ladder previously in use. He perfected the curves of the bodies and the springs, besides making the numberless small details of the body and underworks of the requisite strength, and the most agreeable shape and proportion. Mr Samuel Hobson learnt the art in the firm of Barker and Co., of Chandos Street, and rose to be a partner in the firm, but after a few years in that position he left about the year 1815 and set up for himself in Long Acre, and ultimately moved about 1824 to the large premises previously Messrs Hatchett’s. In his improvements he was assisted by his experience gathered at Messrs Barkers, and aided by the enlightened minds and good sense of most of the trade, who copied him as they had copied his predecessor, Mr Hatchett, in 1780.
The Briska, or britchka, had been, about 1818, introduced into England by Mr T. G. Adams, from Austria. [Plate 33.] It was built both upon elliptical springs and C springs, and was made in various sizes, large for family use, smaller for posting, with a rumble behind, and still smaller to be drawn by one horse. This briska was nearly straight along the bottom, according to the fashion of the wicker waggons still so much used in Germany. The hind panel was ogee-shaped, the front terminated in a square boot, and the door was lower than the hind quarter, and was fitted with a solid folding apron or knee-flap. The carriage was short, and the front wheel rather lower than usual. The Briska came, in 1824, to be very much used, and lasted in favour until about 1840.
Two-wheeled carriages had much increased. The Dennett, invented by Mr Bennett, of Finsbury, was a great improvement on the whisky, or gig, of 1790. It was like those, hung upon two long horizontal springs.
The Stanhope was built under the superintendence of the Hon. Fitzroy Stanhope, brother of Lord Petersham, by Tilbury, the builder also of the easy vehicle of that name. The Stanhope was shaped like the old rib gig, but hung upon four springs, two of which were bolted between the shafts and axle, and the other two crossways, parallel to the axle at either end of the body, and shackled to the side springs. These Stanhopes are very easy, and do not rock so much as other gigs behind a rough-trotting horse, but they are heavier than the dennett, as it is necessary to add iron plates all round the shafts.
The Tilbury was made without any boot, but otherwise the body was shaped like a stanhope; the shafts were equally strong and plated with iron. It was hung in front by two elbow-springs and leather braces to the shafts or front cross bar, and behind by two elbow-springs passing from beneath the seat to a cross-spring raised to the level of the back rail of the body by three straight irons from the hind part of the cross bar. Later two more springs were added between the axletree and the shafts by scroll irons. The Tilbury was an elegant carriage, and when well made, a particularly good vehicle, but the weight of so many springs and so much ironwork gradually took away the public favour; they lasted until nearly 1850. They were perhaps more in favour for export to Italy, Portugal, and other foreign countries, than our other two-wheel carriages, because they would hold together over the roughest roads, and lasted a long time without repair.
The Dog-cart and Tandem-cart belong also to the beginning of the present century in their origin. Dr Edgeworth speaks with horror of the reckless height to which they attained in 1817. “Carriages,” he says, “have arisen to a preposterous elevation. That private phaetons and barouches should be mounted out of the town dust, and above the country hedges, is a dangerous luxury, but it does not materially affect the public. The invention of that daring vehicle, ‘the Suicide,’ will not probably be much imitated among Christian people; and fortunately the laws have limited the elevation to which, by the absurdity of coachmen, mail coaches might have been raised.” The “Suicide” was the name of a very high tandem gig, wherein the groom was mounted upon a seat three feet above the driver. It received its name in Ireland.
The first Dog-carts had a large and deep boot with Venetian slats in the sides, to contain greyhounds or pointers, and the four passengers sat back to back. Tandem-carts were made in a similar manner with a large boot, the driver’s seat raised, something like the Salisbury boot fashion, whilst the groom’s seat was, like the hind seat of a drag, raised from the boot on ironwork. The gradual development of the Dog-cart in all its varied shapes of high cart and low cart, Newport, Pagnell, Malvern cart, Whitechapel, sliding body cart, Norwich cart, &c., are too well known to need enlarging upon. They have afforded facilities of agreeable locomotion to millions at a very moderate cost, and, if carefully driven, are as reasonably safe as any vehicle. Who drives faster than a butcher boy, and over roads of all sorts—dry, rough, slippery, or newly made—the horse’s head held with a snaffle-bit only—and yet it is very seldom that the horse falls.
With the growth of our trade and manufactures the system arose of sending commercial travellers throughout England, to call the attention of shopkeepers to novelties in manufactured goods. It was found advantageous to send these travellers in light vehicles which could convey samples of the manufactures, and this custom led to the multiplication of gigs in far greater quantities than would have been otherwise required. About 1830 one coach factory in London supplied several hundreds of these vehicles to commercial travellers at annual rentals. Now, this sort of travelling to show samples and solicit orders is performed by railway, and the greatest number of two-wheeled vehicles belong to farmers.
In 1810 a duty was levied by Government upon carriages for sale. It was repealed in 1825, but the returns give the number of vehicles built for private use in 1814 as 3636, and in 1824 as 5143, whilst the number of carriages in use in 1824 had grown to nearly 29,000 four-wheeled, and 36,000 two-wheeled, besides 15,000 tax-carts, a total increase, since 1814, of 20,000 vehicles.
Travelling carriages had now become very much in demand, and were taken on the Continent. Some noblemen and gentlemen began to travel abroad every year. The fittings had become more elaborate. It was usual to cord the C springs from the top to the bottom to strengthen them, and provide against the jolts of very bad roads; so that, if one or two of the steel plates broke, the cording would still hold all together. Also long ropes were provided, extending beneath the body from the front to the hind springs, to support it should the body-loops give way under the quantity of luggage stowed in boxes, and imperials, and cap-cases. A dragstaff was provided to prevent the coach sliding back when the horses rested in going up hill, and two drag-chains and shoes against going down hill. Notwithstanding these precautions it became usual, at the top of the Alpine passes, from the courier who attended the traveller to procure from the post-houses two sabots or logs of wood hollowed out to fit a wheel, and these were substituted for the iron shoes during the long and steep descent of the Alpine mountains.
In 1824 a carriage was introduced which has become of almost universal use—the Pony phaeton. In that year King George IV. desired a low phaeton, and one was built for him of a shape and size in which there has been little alteration during the fifty years that have since passed away. It was a cab shape, half caned, with a skeleton bottom side, hung upon four elliptical springs, with crane ironwork back and front, two elbow-wings, bow-steps, and large dasher, and it was drawn by two ponies; the wheels were only 21 and 33 in. high.
Another carriage had been introduced from Germany, called a Droitska, an open carriage with a hood, on a perch, and with C springs. The peculiarity was that the body hung very near the perch; the place for the legs was on either side of the perch, so that the seat was only 12 in. above the hind axle-tree; the chief merit of the Droitska consisted in its lightness compared with Briskas and Barouches, and the shortness of the whole vehicle. In appearance it resembled a pilentum, and it is probable that Mr David Davies took his idea of a pilentum from the shape of the Droitska. Mr David Davies, a Coachmaker of Albany Street, and afterwards of Wigmore Street, had considerable inventive faculties. He originated a number of vehicles, the Pilentum phaeton, about 1834, which was an open carriage with the doorway very near the ground, the driving seat was also low, the whole hung upon elliptical springs, and built of different sizes, to carry four or six persons, and adapted for one or two horses.
The invention of the Cab Phaeton is also attributed to him; this was a cab-shaped body suspended on four elliptic springs, with a low driving seat and dasher, and shafts for one horse. It was soon generally adopted, and became the pleasure carriage of thousands. The cab phaeton was dispersed throughout England, and also on the Continent, where it became known under the name of “Milord.” About 1850 it had become the hack carriage of several of the Continental cities, and so went out of fashion with the gentry. During the last few years, however, it has been revived under the name of Victoria. In 1869, I think it was, that the Prince of Wales bought one at Paris of the curved shape, and Baron Rothschild brought another from Vienna of the square shape, and the Victoria became again the popular carriage. Light, low, easy, fit for one horse, and looking very well behind a pair of cobs, it is not surprising that the Victoria meets with so much patronage, and it is pleasant to observe how little difference there is made by different Coachmakers in the size and shape of this useful and elegant vehicle. I have had occasion to notice the influence that certain Coachbuilders have had upon the progress of this art, and it will not be right to omit to mention the great influence that Messrs Peters have exercised upon the whole trade by the sound and good workmanship which has for so many years characterised their establishment. As early as 1836 their Mail phaetons were noted for the steadiness with which they followed the horses, and the firmness with which they encountered rough roads.
The year 1838 claims special notice in the annals of Coachbuilding; it was probably the climax of the efforts of modern Coachbuilders in what is called “Dress” or “State carriages.”[5] These vehicles had long passed the period in which beautiful carving and elegant painting had been used to disguise, as far as possible, the clumsy State carriages of the 18th century. Ever since the building of the Irish Lord Chancellor’s State coach by Hatchett or Baxter in 1790, Coachbuilders had endeavoured to produce a graceful outline of body, of a fair size no larger than was necessary, the C springs had been made of a perfect curve, the perch followed the sweeps of the body, the carving was reduced to a moderate amount, the ornamental painting was confined to the stripes upon the wheels, and the heraldic bearings of the owners of the carriages were beautifully emblazoned on the panels. For further ornament they relied upon plated work in brass or silver round the body and on the loops and wheel hoops. In every capital of Europe such carriages had superseded the old style, and London and Paris had supplied other countries with most of these State carriages. In this year, 1838, was the coronation of our gracious Queen, and the different ambassadors of foreign countries and our own nobility had prepared for the occasion a larger number of court Dress carriages than had ever been hitherto seen in London. Of these vehicles it was generally considered that Marshal Soult, the French Ambassador’s coach bore away the palm. Engravings of some of the best were soon published. Marshal Soult’s coach was built by Mr Dalringen, at Paris. The body had four upper quarter glasses, with a very elegant deep and pierced cornice of silver round the roof, there were four lamps with large coronets on the tops, and the coach bore a coronet on the roof also. The colour of the painting was a lovely blue, such as was then called Adelaide blue; this had been varnished with white spirit varnish, and seemed almost transparent in lustre. The whole coach was ornamented with silver and was finished in great taste.
About this period a noted Coachmaker named Luke Hopkinson, of Holborn, introduced the briska landau. The peculiar shape is now of little consequence, but with this carriage commenced those improvements upon landaus which have since rendered them so popular.
Up to this time the Landau head had opened just as it did in 1790, and no more; the pillars which now lie nearly flat fell usually only at an angle of forty-five degrees. Mr Hopkinson cut away the corners of the back rails, which hindered the hoopsticks from lying on the elbows, took away the heavy squabbing that bulged into the body when the head was lowered, and lined the upper quarters with plain cloth only, as in a briska head. He also made the seats and bottom to rise six inches when the landau was open, to give the persons inside more air and freedom.
To Mr Laurie we must give the high credit of improving upon Mr Hopkinson’s improvements, and persisting in seeing that his workpeople kept on improving, instead of, as workpeople used to do in 1838, hinder their employers by vexatious objections to all alterations.
This period was noted also by the patronage by the Duke of Wellington of a vehicle called the equirotal, invented by Mr W. Bridges Adams. This was a gig without a head, and a curricle with a head, made so that each could be used with one or a pair of horses, or combined into a mail phaeton by adding two couplings between the two bodies; the four-wheels being of equal height, give it the name of equirotal. The invention has some very good points, and may be revived some day, with a more perfect connecting joint than Mr Adams attained in 1838.
But the greatest improvement of this period was the introduction of the brougham. Lord Brougham and others had for some time used a one-horse chariot. The Pilentum chariot for one horse had already been built at Paris, and several other small close carriages called Clarences had been constructed; but none of these, although some were really light enough for one horse, took thoroughly the taste of the public. Mr David Davies introduced some shapes, and Messrs Laurie and Marner perfected them. I think it was in 1839 that the first vehicle which was nearly the shape of the present Brougham, was built by Mr Robinson, of Mount Street, for Lord Brougham. Messrs Thrupp built one in the following year, 1840, of the same shape. In a few years they were built by nearly all Coachmakers, and proved so convenient that they superseded even the cabriolet for gentlemen’s use. The size of the first Brougham was much as is now in vogue, about 4 feet long in the body, and the same breadth outside measure, the wheels 2 feet 11 inches and 3 feet 7 inches, the driving-boot was made without any arch, in a single sweep from the body to the foot-board; it was hung on elliptic springs in front, and five springs behind, without any body steps. This was preceded by the pill-box Brougham, as it was called, with straight front pillars, and the body very much contracted in front, to look light. A street cab was the forerunner of both.
In a year or two, Mr Edward Lytton Bulwer (afterwards Lord Lytton) had a small Clarence of the shape called Imperial Clarence which was painted brown with white wheels, and had a small hammer-cloth of brown and white; the whole was tastily fitted up and finished, but the attempt to introduce a miniature chariot did not succeed, although it was built with considerable care by Messrs Laurie and Marner.
In 1845, Waggonettes were built of some size; the first, it is said, was made under the superintendence of the late Prince Consort, and was successful as being the forerunner of a very large number of light, roomy, and useful vehicles. Break waggonettes are also an improvement upon the uncomfortable conveyances called Breaks in early days. The principle of riding sideways was not new. The Irish car, the four-wheeled Inside-car of the Westmoreland Lake district, the old Break, and the Omnibus all contributed to the design of the modern vehicle.
In the modern Waggonette we have not only a good looking, comfortable carriage, but one which possesses the advantage of carrying a greater number of persons than any other four-wheeled vehicle of the same weight and size.
In 1846 was introduced and perfected by Messrs Hooper the system of suspending carriages on a single wrought iron perch, supported by horizontal undersprings. The perch being light, and to a certain extent elastic, enabled all the beds and iron stays to be proportionately reduced in weight; the wheels and axles, having less to carry, were also made lighter. This system at first was only applied to broughams and sociables, but it has gradually been applied to the largest carriages, especially barouches and landaus, not only in England, but in all countries where carriages are made, so that it is quite the exception for a new carriage to be built with a perch that is not of solid wrought iron. These connecting perches are not now made quite so light as at first; it is found that unless the hind wheels follow steadily, not only is the carriage heavier behind the horse, but the perch itself is frequently bent against very small obstructions; a stronger and stiffer perch is therefore now used, and it is found both easier to the horse and to the occupants of the vehicle.
We have now reviewed the principal varieties of carriages introduced into England during the present century; to enumerate the whole would be tedious. At our great Exhibitions in London, Paris, Vienna, and other cities, new shapes have continually appeared, and some have found favour, and some have appeared no more. They are evidence that the ingenuity of Coachbuilders is not less than the ingenuity of the workmen in other trades. The history of the last twenty-five years is, however, sufficiently fresh upon the memory not to require repetition. We have already in the reports of the juries of those several Exhibitions, drawn up by Mr George Hooper, a record of the most noteworthy objects. It would be for the benefit of all persons engaged in Carriage-building if those reports could be reissued with the addition of a report of the interesting Philadelphia Exhibition now in progress. M. Guiet, of Paris, will probably write a report for use in that city.
In Saint Petersburg the Russian Emperor had an Imperial carriage factory, originally established in 1821. At these works, which now belong to Messrs Brautigam, two hundred and fifty men are employed. Fifty new carriages a year are built for the Royal family, besides the repairing and altering of others. There is a steam-engine on the premises. There is also at St Petersburg a museum, in which repose travelling carriages on the ground floor, and State carriages on the first floor. There are post-chaises of 1746 and 1762, and seven carriages which were in use by the Empress Catherine, many decorated by well-known painters, such as Watteau, Boucher, Gravelot, &c., and superbly fitted up in the interior with velvet and silk. There are twelve sledges of the elaborate build of former days.
I will here mention that, by the kind permission of Mr W. H. Smith, of the Treasury, I am able to give some further returns of carriages paying duty. Four-wheeled carriages amounted in 1834 to 49,000; in 1844, 62,000; in 1854, 68,000; in 1864, 102,000; and in 1874 there were actually 150,000 four-wheeled carriages paying duty, but these last numbers now include vehicles which were formerly taxed under the Postmaster’s and Stage duties, and these vehicles in 1864 had amounted to 25,000, still without them the increase in ten years is 23,000, quite as many as were kept in the year 1814. In 1814, that is 23,000 four-wheeled carriages paid duty, and in 1874 they had increased to 125,000.
| The return states there were of two-wheeled carriages in— | ||
| 1834 | 50,000 | including the tax carts. |
| 1844 | 33,000 | “ |
| 1854 | 137,000 | “ |
| 1864 | 170,000 | “ |
| And in— | ||
| 1874 | 285,000 | two-wheeled carriages, including basket and other four-wheeled traps under 4 cwt. |
Carriages of both sorts then have increased from about 60,000 in 1814 to 432,600 in 1874, a benefit to the general population it is clear, as well as to the workmen.
It is a satisfaction that our trade contributes to the comfort, happiness, and respectability of the community in general, and is also a very healthy trade for the workmen.
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.
IMENTIONED in an earlier lecture that the Romans, during the time of the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, established a system of public vehicles for hire. These were stationed at inns or post-houses, at intervals of five or six miles, and there were twenty or more horses kept at each inn along the great main roads of Italy, and many of the dependent countries of Europe and Asia. The chief use of the post-houses was to supply the public messengers, but they were found of such accommodation that more horses and vehicles were required for the use of travellers. The essedum, or two-wheeled curricle; the cisium, or gig; and the rhedum, a four-wheeled waggon, drawn by four or six mules, were the chief carriages kept at these stations.
Cesarius, a magistrate in the time of the Emperor Theodosius, went post from Antioch to Constantinople, six hundred and sixty-five miles, in six days, with a speed, allowing for stoppages, of about six miles an hour.
Coaches, we have already seen, were introduced into England in the sixteenth century, stage coaches in the seventeenth, mail coaches in the eighteenth, and railways in the nineteenth centuries. Each of the four last centuries had added to and improved upon the systems of passenger and commercial transit. The facilities for travelling, prior to the introduction of coaches, were afforded by saddle horses, and by cars or charettes, (vehicles without springs, as I have already described), by waggons, and by strings of pack-horses following each other laden with goods, upon which a passenger occasionally sat. For the sick, and ladies who did not ride, the litter, carried by men on two poles, or strapped to mules or horses, was generally adopted.
Persons were in the habit of collecting together and travelling in company with these conveyances, or in gangs by themselves, or on horses when they had them, for their mutual protection. Old men can still recollect strings of pack horses traversing Lancashire and Yorkshire, and advertisements for companions desired by gentlemen about to ride to London.
Laws for the improvement of old roads and the making of new, were passed in the reign of Henry VIII., and special mention is made of those between St. Clements Danes in the Strand, and Charing Cross, Holborn, and Southwark as being then noxious and very jeopardous. In the time of Queen Mary, in 1555, an Act of Parliament ordered the appointment of two surveyors for each parish, and that the roads should be repaired under their supervision.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century the long broad wheeled waggons were introduced into England, and began to pass regularly between the great towns with goods and passengers. These long waggons first received the name of “Stages.” There are continual allusions in old books to their great convenience, although the rate of speed was small.
About one hundred and thirty years ago there seems to have arisen an extraordinary contest between the owners of waggons and those who repaired the highways. It was asserted that the waggon wheels destroyed the road by reason of the great weight of the vehicles and the narrowness of the tyres.
The question was carried before Parliament, and endeavours were made to widen the tyres to nine and even ten inches, so as to reduce the crushing effect of the wheels on soft roads to a minimum. On such roads it was said there were ruts more than a foot deep, cut by the narrow wheels. The Legislature endeavoured to promote the use of broad wheels by exemptions from turnpike tolls, by restrictions and fines upon narrow wheels, and actually recommended tyres 16 inches wide, under the idea that they would roll roads flat, just as gravel walks in a garden are rolled.
In the British Museum is a work by Daniel Bourne, dated 1763, having a design of a waggon with four wheels in which the front axle-tree is very short, so that the track outside the front wheels is made to correspond with the inside of the hind wheels, and they are made like four garden rollers, each 15 inches wide, so that as the waggon moved 5 feet of the road should be simultaneously rolled flat.
After a contest of many years it was generally acknowledged that, to oblige waggoners to carry burdensome wheels to roll the road for pleasure carriages, was an obvious hardship. Every inch added to the really necessary width for strength to the tyre of the wheels was felt by the carrier as a grievance, and the evasion of the government regulations was sympathised with by the common sense of mankind. It was left to the waggoner to keep the wheel sufficiently narrow to run lightly, and sufficiently wide to prevent its sinking with a heavy load into the road. It was admitted that the chief person interested in the matter was the waggoner, as, if his wheels turned heavily over the road by reason of sinking into the surface, then he would fine himself by being obliged to use more horses, or by travelling very slowly.
During the whole of the sixteenth century the improvement of English main and cross-roads continued steadily advancing by the system of turnpike tolls, on the security of which money was borrowed by the parishes in order to make them. Although for a long time there was great opposition, yet the system suited the time, and was probably, in our free country, the only way to obtain them. In France, on the other hand, the nobility made their roads by the forced labour of the peasants within their territory—one of the instances of cruel oppression that led to the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1786, as the poor peasants were obliged, from time to time, to leave the cultivation of the fields and turn out with carts and horses to labour for two or three weeks together at the repair of the roads, and this, too, without any payment.
In 1617, an author named Fynes Morryson relates, that “there were post horses in England, at stations about ten miles apart, that could be hired by travellers on horseback at the charge of 2½d. per mile to 3d.,” but, he adds, “most travellers ride their own horses. In some counties a horse can be hired at 3d. per day, finding the food. Likewise carriers let horses from city to city bargaining that the passengers put up at their inns. They will lend a horse for five or six days thus, and provide its food at these inns for about 20s. Lastly, these carriers have long covered waggons in which they carry passengers to and fro; but this kind of journeying is very tedious; so that none but women and people of inferior condition travel in this sort. Coaches are not to be hired anywhere (this was in 1617) but in London. For a day’s journey a coach with two horses is let for about 10s. a day, or 15s. with three horses, the coachman finding the horses’ feed.”
Yet in 1610 a native of Stralsund, in Pomerania, obtained in Scotland a Royal patent giving him the exclusive privilege of running coaches and waggons between Edinburgh and Leith.
The horses that were hired for travellers were called in France “hacqueneè,” and in Wales “hacknai,” which term extended into England, and after was applied to hired coaches, thence named Hackney Coaches. Samuel Pepys, in his Diary of 1662, speaks of riding his hacqueneè to Woolwich, at a period when he did not keep any horse of his own.
I have already mentioned that long waggons were the first stages; their use commenced before the year 1600, but for the poorer classes there was no other conveyance for many years, and it was late in the eighteenth century before stage coaches were able to give any accommodation to persons with a small purse.
The Stage Coach began to be used in 1640, the same description of vehicle as that in use for private or hackney work, but of a larger size. The body would hold eight persons at times, but generally only six; the passengers were screened from the weather by leather curtains. It was not until the year 1680 that plate glass was sufficiently cheap to be used for windows. The coachman sat on a bar between the two standard posts from which the body was slung, with his feet upon the footboard fixed to the top of the perch. Behind, between the great wheels, was the basket for luggage, in which the outside passengers also sat up to their knees in straw. The body swung about upon heavy leather straps through the rough country roads.
In 1649 Chamberlayne, in a work entitled “The Present State of Great Britain,” speaks up for coaches. “Besides the excellent arrangement of conveying men and letters on horseback, there is of late such an admirable commodiousness both for men and women, to travel from London to the principal towns in the country, that the like hath not been known in the world; and that is by stage coaches, wherein any one may be transported to any place sheltered from foul weather and foul ways, free from endamaging of one’s health and one’s body by hard jogging or over-violent motion on horseback; and this not only at the low price of about a shilling for every five miles, but with such velocity and speed in one hour as the foreign post can make but in one day.”
In 1662, when there were but six stage coaches, another writer of the day condemned them. “For,” he says, “these coaches make country gentlemen come to London on small occasion, which otherwise they would not do but upon urgent necessity; nay, the conveniency of the passage makes their wives often come up, who, rather than make such long journeys on horseback, would stay at home. Here, when they come to town, they must be in the fashion, get fine clothes, go to plays and treats, and by this means get such a habit of idleness and love of pleasure that they are uneasy ever after.”
Another writer in 1673 opposes stages. “Is it,” he asks, “for a man’s health to be laid fast in foul ways, and forced to wade up to the knees in mire; and afterwards sit in the cold till fresh teams of horses can be procured to drag the coach out of the foul ways? Is it for his health to travel in rotten coaches, and have their tackle, or perch, or axle-tree broken, and then to wait half the day before making good their stage?”
This gives us some idea of the badness of the roads, and the imperfection of the vehicles. These last, however, were not improved in the time of Hogarth, who, in 1730, painted a stage coach waiting in an inn-yard.
In the Diary of Sir William Dugdale we find records of his journeys by stage coaches between 1659 and 1680, to the towns of Norwich, Coventry, Chester, St Albans, Bedford, and Birmingham during the reign of Charles II.
Hackney coaches were first used in England in 1605 [Plates 13, 14, and 22]. These were similar to the coaches used by the gentry; at first they did not ply for hire in the streets, but remained at the hiring-yards until they were wanted. As, however, many more persons wished to hire than could afford to keep a coach of their own, the demand increased rapidly. In 1635 the number was restricted to fifty. Still they increased in spite of the opposition of the court and king, who thought they would break up the roads, till, in 1650, there were as many as three hundred. In Paris they were introduced by Nicholas Sauvage, who lived in a street at the sign of St Fiacre, and from this circumstance hackney coaches were called in France “Fiacres,” and they became very common and popular. In 1772 the hire of fiacres in Paris was a shilling the first hour, and tenpence the second. In London, in 1662 there were four hundred hackney coaches, and the government began then to levy a yearly duty upon them of £5 each. In 1694 the number had increased to seven hundred, a substantial proof of their usefulness. Mr Pepys, in his amusing Diary, continually speaks of hiring coaches for use in London, and to go to Deptford and Woolwich, in his journeys to the dockyards in his business for the Admiralty.
Many of these were the old coaches of the nobility and gentry, and it is not until 1790 that we hear from Mr Felton that the hackney coaches were generally built of a smaller size, and much shorter in the under carriage than those of the gentry. Their hire appears to have been very moderate, to judge by the records of Dean Swift, who resided in London for three years in the days of Queen Anne (1710 to 1713), and who made frequent use of hackney coaches, and on wet days did not venture out without a coach or a sedan chair. It would seem he could ride from the city to the neighbourhood of St Giles for one or two shillings.
To return to stage coaches, we are told that in 1673 there were coaches from London to York, to Chester, and to Exeter, having each forty horses on the road, and carrying each six inside passengers. The coach occupied eight days in travelling to Exeter, but the fare was only forty shillings in the summer and fine weather; in winter the same coach was nearly ten days on the road, and the fare was increased to forty-five shillings. There were four-horse stage coaches going daily to places within twenty or thirty miles of London, and others that went to places within ten miles and returned the same day.
In 1703, a stage coach went from London to Portsmouth, when the roads were good, in fourteen hours.
In 1706, a coach went from London to York every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which performed the journey in four days, allowing each passenger fourteen pounds of luggage free, and above that weight the charge was threepence per pound.
In 1742 the Oxford stage used to leave London at seven in the morning, reaching High Wycombe at five in the evening, and, resting the night, proceeded to Oxford the next day.
In the same year there was a coach from London to Birmingham, starting on Monday and arriving on Wednesday, forty miles a day, but the coach usually stopped half one day at Oxford.
In 1751, a stage coach went to Dover, arriving at Canterbury the same night, reaching Dover early the next day, and starting on its return to London the same afternoon. The advertisement states that there is a conveniency behind the coach for baggage and outside passengers. This implies that it was not, even at this late date, usual to carry passengers on the roof, and that the general structure of the vehicle was similar to the stage coach of 1640; one change had been made: the driving box on the fast coaches was placed high above the horses on a narrow boot, something like what is called a Salisbury boot; this was placed upon the beds or timbers of the carriage, with a tolerably comfortable seat for two persons upon it. But the jolting and shaking over rough bits in the road must have been very trying. In the hall of the Coachmakers’ Company, in Noble Street, Cheapside, is a picture of Hyde Park Corner in 1796, painted by Dagaty, in which is an old stage coach; the hinder part has a boot and guard’s seat attached to the body as in modern stage coaches, but the box is detached from the body and on the beds, as described above; the panels of the body are very deep, and on the upper quarters are painted two large stars, from which we may conjecture that it is a mail coach.[6]