A practical treatise on coach-building historical and descriptive

by James W. Burgess

Herodotus (450 B.C.) mentions that the Scythians used a vehicle which consisted of a rough platform upon wheels, on which was placed a covering like a beehive, composed of basket work and covered with skins. When they pitched anywhere these huts were taken off, and served them as dwellings in lieu of tents. [Fig. 4] shows one of their chariots.

The war chariots used by the Persians were much larger than those used by contemporary nations. The idea seems to have been to form a sort of turret on the car to protect the warriors in action. These vehicles were provided with curved blades, like scythes, which projected from the axletrees, for the purpose of maiming the enemy as they drove through them.

Fig. 4.—Scythian Chariot.

At the period of the invasion of this country by the Romans, a car or chariot seems to have been in use which they had not met with before. It was larger than the Roman car, and possessed a seat, from which feature it was called essedum. It was doubtless an improved vehicle of its kind, for Cicero, writing to a friend in Britain, says “that there appeared little worth bringing away from Britain except the chariots, of which he wished his friend to bring him one as a pattern.”

Sir William Gell, in his work on Pompeii, which was destroyed A.D. 79, mentions that three wheels had been dug out of the ruins in his day, very much like our modern wheels—a little dished, and 4 feet 3 inches high, with ten spokes rather thicker at each end than in the middle. He also gives an illustration of a cart used for the conveyance of wine in a large skin or leather bag; it is a four-wheeled cart, with an arch in the centre for the front wheel to turn under. The pole appears to end in a fork, and to be attached to the axle bed.

On the decline of the Roman power, many of the arts of civilisation which they had been instrumental in forwarding fell into disuse. The skilled artisans died and left no successors, there being no demand for them. This will account for no mention being made of carriages or chariots for some centuries. Of course there were various primitive contrivances in use to which the name of cart was given, but the great and wealthy moved about the cities or travelled on horseback, or if they were incapable of this, they used litters carried by men or horses. The great bar to the general adoption of wheeled carriages was undoubtedly the very bad state of the roads.

An evident improvement in construction was made by the Saxons. In the Cotton Library there is a valuable illuminated manuscript, supposed to be the work of Elfricus, Abbot of Malmesbury. The subject is a commentary on the Books of Genesis and Exodus, with accompanying illustrations. In one of these is represented the first approach to a slung carriage; and it may be interesting to the lovers of historical coincidence that it is given in an illustration of the meeting of Joseph and Jacob, and in that part of the Bible which first makes mention of vehicular conveyance. The chariot in which Joseph is seated is a kind of hammock (most probably made of leather, which was much used by the Anglo-Saxons), suspended by iron hooks from a framework of wood. It moves upon four wheels, the construction of which is not clear, owing to the decorative license taken with them by the artist. The father of Joseph is placed in a cart, which we doubt not, from its extreme simplicity, is a faithful type of those of the time. This proves the illuminator to have been true to his subject and the custom of the period in which he lived, as the chariot was monopolised by the great men, while the people rode in carts.

With the Normans came the horse litter, a native originally of Bithynia, and from thence introduced into Rome, where it is still used by the Pope on state occasions, and also among the mountain passes of Sicily, as well as in Spain and Portugal. Malmesbury records that the dead body of Rufus was placed upon a rheda caballaria, a kind of horse litter. King John, in his last illness, was conveyed from the Abbey of Swinstead in lectica equestre. These were for several succeeding reigns the only carriages in use for persons of distinction. Froissart writes of Isabel, the second wife of Richard II., as “La june Royne d’Angleterre en une litieré moult riche qui etoit ordonèe pour elle.” These litters were seldom used except on state occasions. When Margaret, daughter of Henry II., went into Scotland, she is described as journeying on a “faire palfrey,” but after her was conveyed by two footmen “one very riche litere, borne by two faire coursers vary nobly drest; in which litere the sayd queene was borne in the intryng of the good towns or otherwise to her good playsher.”

Carriages proper were first introduced on the continent. Italy, France, Spain, and Germany contend with each other for the honour of the first introduction. The earliest record we have is on the authority of Beckmann, who says that, when at the close of the thirteenth century Charles of Anjou entered Naples, his queen rode in a caretta, the outside and inside of which were covered with sky-blue velvet interspersed with golden lilies.