which the then Prince of Wales brought to England in 1869 to which the
name may be more correctly ascribed. It is to be noticed, however,
that the pony phaeton and the victoria proper differ from one another
only in size and in the presence or absence of a driver’s seat. The
Prince of Wales’s carriage was curved in shape and hooded, but about
the same time Baron Rothschild imported a victoria from Vienna of the
square shape. Both forms persist. At first, of course, the victoria was
looked on with suspicion, but the Princess of Wales speedily showed her
liking for it—it did indeed make an ideal lady’s carriage—and in a
short while the world followed suit. “Light, low, easy, fit for one
horse, and looking very well behind a pair of cobs,” remarks Thrupp,
“it is not surprising that the victoria meets with so much patronage.”
At first it would seem that the hood was not made to lie flat, a fact
amongst others which prompted a caustic critic in 1877 to grumble at
the conservatism of English manufacturers. “Even with so good a model
of this carriage as that presented to them in the victoria,” he wrote,
“the English builders do not see fit to maintain the same lines, and
for some inscrutable reason deem that the hood when down should rest at
an angle; whereas the ‘cachet’ of the Parisian equipages lies in the
absolute straight line it maintains with the horizon.” Only a few years
later, however, another critic was drawing attention to the superiority
of the English victoria over its French counterpart. “Their rattle,”
he wrote of the latter, “is enough to distinguish them. The French
victoria is a low-mounted and decidedly unsymmetrical machine. The
pole [is] a foot longer than it should be, the splinter bar and fore
carriage too low”—a criticism which holds good to-day with most of the
Italian carriages of this type.
Varieties of the victoria were constructed almost as soon as the
carriage had reached to any degree of popularity. A hinge-seat was
fitted into the front boot to face the ordinary seat, and this not
proving enough, a permanent seat for two was built in its place, this
innovation giving rise to the double victoria, which was built with
or without doors. I need not, perhaps, dwell further on the victoria,
except to observe that such changes as took place in the landau also
took place in its more delicate rival.
[Illustration: _Canoe-shaped Landau, 1860_]
[Illustration: _Drag, 1860_]
Another open carriage which remained popular until the introduction
of automobiles is the phaeton. Sir Walter Gilbey mentions several
varieties. Of these the largest seems to have been the mail phaeton.
“It was a favourite carriage,” he writes, “seventy years ago
or more, and was frequently used by gentlemen for long posting
journeys in England and on the Continent. In these days this
carriage was always built with a perch, the undercarriage
resembling that of a coach, whence its name. For a time
elliptical springs were adopted, but during the last ten
years the fashionable mail phaeton has been a solid-looking
square-bodied vehicle on its old undercarriage.”
In 1889, he also observes that a jointed perch was used, the object
being “to prevent the vehicle being twisted on bad roads, and also to
preserve its equilibrium under trying conditions of roads.” The _demi
mail phaeton_, to which Sir Walter gives the credit of having ousted
the ugly _perch high phaeton_ from public favour, “derives its names
from the peculiar arrangement of the springs in the construction of
the undercarriage.” Another variety, the _Beaufort phaeton_, is large
enough to carry six people, and was, in the first place, expressly
designed to carry people to the meet. Yet another modification, the
_Stanhope phaeton_, invented by the peer of that name, is smaller than
the last-mentioned, and has achieved a world-wide popularity. “The
head and apron render it suitable for winter work, and when the hood
is thrown back the stanhope is an admirable vehicle for summer use
whether in town or country.” The _T-cart_ is a smaller _stanhope_ “with
compassed rail and sticked body in front and a seat for the groom
behind.” Sir Walter records the fact that its greatest popularity was
about 1888, after which it was supplanted by the _spider phaeton_—a
“tilbury body on four wheels with a small seat for the groom supported
on branched irons behind.”
It would be possible to mention half a dozen other varieties of the
phaeton,[59] but such a list is best relegated to a coachbuilder’s
catalogue. There is only one innovation which should not be allowed to
pass unnoticed here. Many of the phaeton bodies during the ’sixties
were constructed of basket-work; indeed, Croydon, where lived the
inventor, received all the benefits which a new industry brings in its
trail, but the popularity of these basket-carriages waned as rapidly
as it had waxed—due, according to one writer, to the ridicule heaped
upon them by _Punch_. A revival was attempted in 1886, and “we have a
reminiscence of it in the imitation cane-work painted on the panels of
many carriages” at a still later date.[60]
We come to the closed carriages.
The _brougham_ was undergoing about as many changes and improvements as
fell to the lot of any other carriage, yet superficially it maintained
much the same appearance. The coupé brougham so popular to-day is the
relic of the old chariot.[61] Of its several varieties the best-known
is, or rather was—for it is rarely, if ever, seen now—the _clarence_.
“It was introduced,” says Sir Walter, “about the year 1842 by Messrs.
Laurie and Marner, of Oxford Street, and has fairly been described
as “midway between a brougham and a coach.” It had very curved and
rather fanciful lines, seated four persons inside, and was entered
by one step from the ground, carried the coachman and footman on a
low driving seat, and was used with a lighter pair of horses than
the family coach.” Certain models, however, show the driver’s seat
to have been high, on a level, that is to say, with the roof; and
not long after the first clarence was designed, Lytton Bulwer caused
to be built what was called a _Surrey clarence_, which possessed a
hammercloth. The attempt, however, to produce a miniature chariot did
not succeed. Another variety, named uncomfortably the _dioropha_, was
shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851.[62] Here the side windows would
slide up and down upon a new principle, and “the whole upper part of
the body from the elbow-line could be lifted from the lower, leaving
a barouche body.” You were shown models of this upper portion hanging
rather forlornly from the roof of a coach-house. But improvements in
the landau caused the extinction of the _dioropha_, which does not
seem to have been built after 1875. The _amempton_, invented by a Mr.
Kesterton, was a smaller form of this carriage. The one-horse “growler”
or “four-wheeler,” by the way, which still wanders up and down the
streets of London, is the lineal descendant of the _clarence_.
Of the more unconventional four-wheeled carriages, the waggonette
seems to have been introduced about 1845 by the Prince Consort after
a German model, though one writer gives the credit of the design to
the Prince himself. Here, as every one knows, the seats faced each
other at right-angles to the driver’s seat, the door being at the
back. At first they were built very large—to carry out the original
intention of providing a _family_ carriage which should really be
worthy of the name. Afterwards smaller models were produced, and
proved equally popular. “The principle of riding sideways,” remarks
Thrupp, “was not new. The Irish car, the four-wheeled Inside car of the
Westmorland district, the old Break, and the Omnibus all contributed
to the design of the modern vehicle.” A few particular varieties may
be mentioned. The now forgotten _perithron_, a Suffolk invention, was
a waggonette in which the driving seat was bisected down its centre,
so as to allow a passenger entering from the back to reach the front
seat. The _Portland waggonette_, built for the Duke of Portland in
1893, was a large carriage with a folding hood. Another carriage of
the kind with a folding leather hood was presented by Lord Lonsdale
to the King and Queen at the time of their wedding. This is known as
a _Lonsdale waggonette_. “Lord Lonsdale,” remarks Sir Walter Gilbey,
“allowed his name to be given to this device under the impression
that he was the first to originate a head of this description; but
his claim for invention of it was disputed at the time. Mr. Robertson
stated that he had built such a waggonette so far back as 1864; Mr.
Kinder had built one in 1865; and Messrs. Morgan stated that they
had turned out a similar vehicle before the year 1870.” A very large
waggonette, the _brake_, is a common enough object to-day, and is built
in various forms. Sometimes a second seat is placed directly behind
and parallel to the driver’s seat. In some models these seats stretch
back throughout the length of the carriage, in which case it is a
_char-à-banc_. Awnings, permanent or temporary, are generally provided.
In America the commonest four-wheeled carriage is the light _wagon_ or
_buggy_, a name given in England to a light two-wheeled, single-seated
cart (also called a sulky[63]) towards the end of the eighteenth
century. The _buggy_ has one seat fixed on to a long, shallow tray; the
_wagon_ is similar, but has two or more seats.
“These American waggons,” says Thrupp, “were modelled from the
old German waggon, but they have been so much improved as to
be scarcely recognised. The distinctive feature of the German
waggon was a light, shallow tray, suspended above a slight
perch carriage on two grasshopper springs placed horizontally
and parallel with and above the front and hind axle-tree; on
the tray one or two seats were placed, the whole was light and
inexpensive, and well adapted to a new, rough country without
good roads. These waggons may still be found in Germany and
Switzerland....
“American ingenuity was lavished upon these waggons, and they
have arrived at a marvel of perfection in lightness. The two
grasshopper springs have been replaced with two elliptical
springs. The perch, axle-trees, and carriage timbers have been
reduced to thin sticks. The four wheels are made so slender
as to resemble a spider’s web; in their construction of the
wheels the principle of the patent rim used in England in 1790
has been adopted. Instead of five, six, or seven felloes to
each wheel, there are only two, of oak or hickory wood, bent
to the shape by steam. The ironwork of the American buggy is
very slender, yet composed of many pieces, and, in order to
reduce the cost, these pieces of iron are mostly cast, not
forged, of a sort of iron less brittle than our cast iron....
The weight of the whole waggon is so small that one man can
lift it upon its wheels again if accidentally upset, and
two persons of ordinary strength can raise it easily from
the ground. The four wheels are nearly of the same height,
and the body is suspended centrally between them. There are
no futchels; the pole or shafts are attached to the front
axle-tree bed, and the front of the pole is carried by the
horses just as they carry the shafts; the splinter-bar and
whipple-trees are attached to the pole on swivels. Some are
made without hoods and some with hoods. These are made so
that the leather of the sides can be taken off and rolled up,
and the back leather removed, rolled, or fixed at the bottom,
a few inches away from the back, the roof remaining as a
sunshade....
“The perfection to which the American buggy or waggon has
been carried, and every part likely to give way carefully
strengthened, is marvellous. Those made by the best builders
will last a long time without repair. The whole is so slender
and elastic that it ‘gives’—to use a trade term—and recovers
itself at any obstacle. The defect in English eyes of these
carriages consists in the difficulty of getting in or out by
reason of the height of the front wheel, and its proximity to
the hind wheel—it is often necessary partly to lock round
the wheel to allow of easy entrance. There is also a tremulous
motion on a hard road which is not always agreeable. It is
not surprising that, with the great advantages of extreme
lightness, ease, and durability, and with lofty wheels, the
American waggons travel with facility over very rough roads,
and there is a great demand for them in our colonies. It must
be remembered that the price is small, less than the price of
our gigs and four-wheeled dog-carts.”
[Illustration: _Modern American Station Wagon_]
[Illustration: _Modern American Buggy_
_Both from Studebaker’s (Chicago) Catalogue_]
Indeed, the tourist in America will come away with the impression that
there is hardly a family in the continent which does not possess at
least one buggy or waggon. They can be driven, too, at a very great
pace. In this connection it is interesting to notice that it was a
buggy which Lord Lonsdale selected in order to carry out his great
driving feat in 1891, when “he undertook to drive four stages of five
miles within an hour, using for the first three stages one, a pair, a
team, and riding postilion in the fourth.”
There are, of course, many varieties, several invented after Thrupp
wrote the above account. Of these some are peculiar to a particular
State, while others seem to be in general use throughout the continent.
In Chicago, for instance, and other towns of the middle west, the
commonest buggy seems to be the _bike wagon_, of which a variety is the
_cut-under bike wagon_, where the tray is double—the seat forming a
bridge between its two parts.
Stanhopes and phaetons are also manufactured in America, though on a
much lighter scale than in England. Another popular American carriage
is the _surrey_, which has the two-seated arrangements of the larger
waggons, but is without the tray. The _station wagon_, very popular
in New England, resembles the old English chariot, and differs from
it only in its driving seat, which is on a level with the inside seat
and directly against the front lines of the carriage-body. This is one
of the most comfortable carriages in the country. The _buckboard_,
even slenderer than the buggy, is hardly more than the skeleton of a
carriage, but seems none the less popular on that account. The _barge_
is the name given in Massachusetts to a two-seated waggon, and the word
has a curious origin. It seems probable that it is a relic of the days
when in that part of the country the boat sleighs used in the winter
were put upon wheels in the summer. At a later date ordinary waggons
were used for summer traffic, but the old name stuck. And I dare say
there are a dozen or more local names of some peculiarity in other
parts of America which to-day are given to carriages not in the least
like those to which the name was originally applied.
Coming to the two-wheeled carriages, we find similar changes to those
described above showing themselves. The old curricle, for instance,
is now but rarely seen, its place being taken by one or other of the
dog-carts. What was probably the most fashionable of these carriages
during the early Victorian era is now practically extinct. This was the
_cabriolet_, rather different in appearance from the vehicles of that
name which had plied for hire but a few years before, yet built on the
same principles as the earliest French gigs.
“They were greatly improved,” wrote Mr. G. N. Hooper in
1899,[64] “about fifty years ago by the well-known Count
D’Orsay and the late Mr. Charles B. Courtney, who greatly
refined the outlines and proportions, making them lighter,
more compact, and far more stylish. They became _par
excellence_ the equipage of the _jeune noblesse_, and no more
stylish two-wheel carriages for one horse were driven for many
years while they were fashionable. A large, well-bred horse
was a necessity, and this the cabriolet generally had.
“The groom, or ‘tiger’ as he was then called, was a special
London product: he was produced in no other city, British or
foreign; all the genuine tigers hailed from London. His age
varied from fifteen to twenty-five. Few there were that were
not perfect masters of their horses, were they never so big.
In shape and make he was a man in miniature, his proportions
perfect, his figure erect and somewhat defiant: his coat
fitted as if it had been moulded on him; his white buckskin
breeches were spotless; his top-boots perfection; his hat,
with its narrow binding of gold or silver lace, and brims
looped up with gold or silver cord, brilliant with brushing,
was worn jauntily. As he stood at his horse’s head, ready to
receive his noble master, you might expect him to say, ‘My
master is a duke, and I am responsible for his safety.’”
There is little enough to say of the gigs. The curricle, as I
have said, is now rarely seen, though Sir Walter Gilbey mentions
a particular one introduced about 1883 “which differed materially
from the vehicle formerly known by that name. It consisted of a
cabriolet, or whisky body, having an ‘ogee’ or chair back, the body
being suspended by braces from C or S springs upon the undercarriage.
Its peculiarity lay in the use of long lancewood shafts, set so far
apart that the pole could be placed between them; the saddle-bar being
used to support the pole, the shafts, it would seem, were somewhat
unnecessary.” The _Cape cart_ brought into England from South Africa is
a two-wheeled vehicle of this class with a pole in place of shafts, and
“the sides being framed so as to present three panels.”
“At the back,” says Sir Walter, “was built in a large box
for provisions, the full width and depth of the cart, the
back seat forming the lid; the tail-board was used only as
a foot-rest. An adjustable centre seat with backrest could
be used so as to provide accommodation for six passengers. A
white canvas tilt on wooden hoops with sunblinds at the sides,
which could be strapped up when not wanted, covered the whole
body of the cart.”
And similar to the Cape cart is the _Whitechapel cart_, which brings me
to a brief consideration of the _dog-carts_.
As originally designed, the dog-cart seems to have been built high,
and, as its name implies, for the purpose of carrying dogs. Such a
vehicle would seat four, a roomy, comfortable trap “with space under
the seats, where a brace of pointers or other dogs could lie at
ease.” As I have said in a preceding chapter, the sides of the cart
“were made with Venetian slats to provide ventilation.” Such a cart,
however, proved so agreeable that no long time elapsed before its
original purpose was lost sight of, and it became one of the commonest
of country carriages. Built on a small scale it was admirably suited
for pony or cob. Numerous varieties exist. In the _tandem cart_, as
generally constructed, the driver’s seat is high—the only cart,
indeed, of the kind to maintain any height at all. In the _Ralli cart_
two seats are placed back to back, the foot-rest to the latter closing
on the body when required. (Built somewhat on the lines of the ralli,
by the way, is the Indian _tonga_, “a rather low, hooded vehicle ...
furnished for draught by a pair of ponies on the curricle principle
with pole and bar.”) The _Battlesden_, _Bedford_, and _Malvern carts_
are other varieties. More popular, perhaps, than any of these is the
_governess cart_, which, while really in a class by itself, may be
mentioned here. This is a low and particularly safe carriage, in which
the seats are placed at the sides, as in the waggonette, and the door
is at the back. An improvement on the governess cart, though not nearly
so popular, is the _Princess car_, first designed in 1893. Here the
back door is dispensed with, the entrance being in front. “The driving
seat is arranged on a slide, whereby it can be moved forwards or
backwards to adjust the balance; and it also enables the driver to sit
facing the horse instead of sitting sideways as in the governess cart.”
In the last chapter I pointed out the chief varieties of public
carriages. Of these the hansom and the omnibus have undergone
considerable changes. The hansom was enormously improved by Mr.
Forde, a Wolverhampton coachbuilder, in 1873, when the Society of
Arts offered a prize for the best two-wheeled public conveyance. Mr.
Forde’s carriage was much lighter than the older hansoms, and “its
merits attracted the appreciative attention of foreigners, whereby an
export trade became established.” Four years later another vehicle, the
_two-wheeled brougham_, was introduced, but did not meet with success.
The _Floyd hansom_ of 1885 showed other improvements, and for the first
time the hansom became a private carriage. Here the “side windows were
made to open, as were two small windows at the back of the cab.” For
a short while, indeed, the private hansom was one of the smartest of
gentlemen’s carriages. Then in 1889 was shown another hansom with a
movable hood. This was wholly unsuccessful, but the _Arlington cab_,
a Dorchester invention of this time, may still be seen in provincial
towns to which the taximeter petrol cab has not yet reached. The chief
peculiarity about this hansom is its doors, which, instead of reaching
only half-way up and being constructed at a backward angle, reach from
door to roof and are upright—thus giving a more spacious interior.
These doors are “fitted with sliding glasses in the top part after
the manner of an ordinary brougham door.” A _brougham hansom_ was
introduced in 1887. “This afforded sitting-room inside for three or
four; it was entered at the back, and when the door was shut, a seat
across it was so arranged that there was no possibility of the door
opening till the occupants’ weight was off the seat. The driver’s seat
was in front, on the roof of the vehicle.” A _four-wheeled hansom_ was
also seen in London some twenty-five years ago. Here the driver’s seat
was behind the carriage on a level with the roof.
“Everybody knows,” remarks Sir Walter Gilbey, “that the hansom, by
reason of its steadiness, is an exceedingly comfortable conveyance;
there is no vehicle that runs more easily, particularly when the load
is truly balanced.” But in spite of such improvements as rubber tyres
and patent windows, the hansom seems doomed.
Shillibeer’s huge omnibuses were succeeded by smaller vehicles of
similar construction. For some years no passengers were carried upon
the roof except one or two beside the driver. Then in 1849 an “outside
seat down the centre of the roof was added,” to reach which you had to
climb an iron ladder. This continued until 1890, when the much more
convenient “garden-seats” were substituted, and a curved flight of
steps took the place of the rather dangerous ladder. Private omnibuses
were first constructed about 1867. They contained a rumble at the back
for the footman, but this was speedily dispensed with. As built to-day,
they are of various sizes.
One other carriage may be mentioned, and then I am done. This is the
_Irish car_. Here, as in the larger _bian_, the seats are arranged
back to back and sideways. “The wheels are very low and are concealed
as far as the axle-boxes, or farther, by the panel of the footboard,
which panel is hinged to the end of the _tray_, either side of which
forms the seat, to allow of its being turned up when not in use.”
Occasionally there is a well between the seats for small packages.
In private cars of this kind there is a small seat in front for the
driver, but this is rarely to be found in the public vehicles. The
width of the _Irish car_ is enormous, and occasionally leads the
neophyte into trouble. Outside Ireland, I believe, the car is not seen.
“Walking in the pleasant environs of Paris,” wrote Mr. H. C.
Marillier some seventeen years ago, in an article entitled
_The Automobile: A Forecast_, “or even further afield, upon
the broad _routes nationales_ of Charente and La Beauce, it
is no uncommon thing to meet on a summer’s day a little open
vehicle flitting along without apparent means of motion,
upon noiseless rubber-shod wheels, or panting forth a gentle
warning from a square-shaped box in front. Two, and sometimes
three, persons are seated in it, one of whom drives by means
of a handle. To stop or to start again requires the turn of a
screw or the push of a pedal. Such, in its most accomplished
and most graceful form, is the _automobile_. To see it pass
at racing speed—some of these little machines can spurt at
twenty miles an hour—takes one’s breath away at first. The
apparition is uncanny.”