“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:
“What can Tommy Onslow do?
He can drive a chaise and two;
What can Tommy Onslow more?
Oh, he drives a chaise and four.”
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.