In bygone times, donkey caravans were used, many of them being little more than covered carts, and to-day similar vehicles of a slightly modified form may be seen drawn by horses or ponies, the vehicles being too cumbrous and heavy to allow of a donkey being used as the draught animal. I have, however, seen a pony between the shafts and a donkey hitched on to the outside to assist.
The simplest form of what may be termed the covered van type of dwelling is shown by the second van from the front in the Illustration. The top or tilt is usually removable so that the owners may use it as a tent, leaving the van free for ordinary purposes. I know a family possessing a van of this description, who, during fruit picking, contract for carrying to rail by means of the van while the tilt is pegged down to the ground and utilized as a sleeping apartment.
I have been fortunate in obtaining in the one photograph, four different classes of living wagon. The tilt of the simplest type is composed of arched ribs covered with canvas or tarpaulin, that of the foremost, and altogether more substantial vehicle is composed of similar ribs which are covered with narrow planking, and this, in turn, is covered with painted canvas.
TYPES OF LIVING WAGON.
Most of the caravans are the work of professional wagon builders, and vary in accordance with the ideas of the client and the sum he is prepared to spend. Occasionally the gypsy constructs his own habitation, and in such case usually purchases the under-carriage and ironwork; he obtains most of his woodwork ready sawn, and executes the greater part of the ornamental work, bevelling and so on, with the knife, in the use of which he is an adept.
With regard to interior arrangement, there is, of course, as great, or even a greater, difference in the cost and care expended on different caravans than is apparent in the matter of exterior, but there is withal a certain similarity in the disposition of the essentials. As one enters the wagon, the fireplace is usually on the left hand, one of the principal reasons for this being that when travelling, and conforming to the rule of the road, the chimney protruding from the roof is not liable to be damaged or broken off by the lower branches of wayside trees, etc. Small ordinary, American, “Hostess” or other stoves are fitted, but I recollect seeing in a caravan a stove that consisted only of a piece of sheet-iron bent to a rough cylinder tapering to a chimney, the lower part having a piece cut away and a grid affixed therein. The family had no trouble to keep out the winter cold, for this rather primitive stove would burn almost anything, the van included if not carefully looked after. Almost invariably the beds are across the van at the far end so that the weight is over the hind wheels; usually they are raised some little distance from the floor—the open space beneath being variously utilized, sometimes as a sleeping apartment for the children, at others it is enclosed and has doors for use as a cupboard. Plain or glass-fronted corner cupboards may be found, and in some I have seen good pieces of old china, genuine stuff, not the reproductions which are to be seen so frequently nowadays.
Notwithstanding the fact that these things are highly prized and are regarded as heirlooms by their owners, I have known valuable cups and other articles to be in everyday use by both van and tent dwellers, and he would be a brave dealer who—in some cases at least—ventured a second time to attempt bargaining for possession.
“What a pity!” exclaims the connoisseur.