A practical treatise on coach-building historical and descriptive

by James W. Burgess

In the eighteenth century improvements were made in the construction of coaches, but they were still heavy lumbering contrivances, so that little or no progress was made in the rate at which they travelled. Even so late as 1760 a journey from Edinburgh to London occupied eighteen days, a part of the roads being only accessible by pack horses. There is a very good specimen of the vehicle of the early part of the eighteenth century in the South Kensington Museum, belonging to the Earl of Darnley’s family, and is well worthy of study as being one of the lightest examples known of this period.

In the Museum of South Kensington is also an excellent example of the fully developed coach of 1790. It is a very massive-looking affair, and belonged to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland; it looks very much like a faded edition of the City state coach now, though when new it doubtless had a very good appearance. It consists of a very large body, suspended from upright or whip springs by means of leather braces; the standing pillars slope outwards, making the sides longer at the roof than at the elbow line. The wheels are of good height, and the carriage part is very massively constructed, the upper part being finished off with scroll ironwork, and on this in the front the coachman’s hammercloth is raised. The panels are painted with landscapes, &c., by Hamilton, R.A., and no doubt altogether it cost a deal of money.

Vehicles now began to assume that variety of shape and form of which we have in our own time so many specimens. There were Landaus, introduced from a town of that name in Germany; these were, like the coaches, only made to open in the centre of the roof just as they do now, but instead of the covering falling into a horizontal line it only fell back to an angle of 45 degrees, and this pattern was maintained for a number of years. Landaulets were chariots made to open. Generally speaking, the difference between a coach and a chariot was that the former had two seats for the accommodation of passengers, and the latter but one, and in appearance was like a coach cut in half. Then came phaetons, barouches, sociables, curricles, gigs, and whiskies, which, in their general form and attributes, were similar to the vehicles of the present day which bear these names. In those days fast driving was all the “go,” and young men vied with each other in driving the loftiest and most dangerous gigs and phaetons. Contemporary literature teemed with romantic tales of spills and hairbreadth ’scapes from these vehicles, and yet dilated on the fearful pleasure there was in driving them.

The larger 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 by one horse, chaises. There was a little variation in the shape of the body, viz. the full curricle pattern and the half curricle, with or without a boot, similar to a Tilbury or a gig body. The wheels were 4 feet 3 inches to 5 feet in height. Lancewood was then used for shafts.

It is at the beginning of the nineteenth century that real progress is to be found in coaches and other carriages. In 1804, Mr. Obadiah Elliott, a coachmaker of Lambeth, patented a plan for hanging vehicles upon elliptic springs, thus doing away with the heavy perch, as the longitudinal timber or iron connecting the hind-carriage with the fore carriage is called. Perches are still used, but are chiefly confined to coaches proper, or those hung upon C springs. Elliott also considerably lightened the carriage part of the vehicles he turned out. This was the first step to a grand revolution in the manufacture of carriages, which was to affect every variety of vehicle, great or small. Elliott’s enterprise was rewarded by the gold medal of the Society of Arts, and by his business becoming a very prosperous one, for the public were not slow in discovering the advantages arising from great lightness in vehicles.

A print, published in 1816, shows a landaulet hung on elliptic springs, four in number, with a square boot framed to the body, and the driving seat supported on ironwork high above the boot. Behind there is a footboard supported on the pump-handles. The distance between the axletrees is very short, only 6 feet 6 inches from centre to centre. The body is rather small, and the wheels are 3 feet 8 inches and 4 feet 8 inches high respectively, and the bottom of the body is 3 feet 6 inches above the ground. The span or opening of the springs is 10 inches.

In 1814 there were 23,400 four-wheeled vehicles paying duty to Government, 27,300 two-wheeled, and 18,500 tax-carts in Great Britain, showing a total of 69,200 vehicles. The later returns will show how much a reduction in the duties and the use of elliptic springs have promoted the increase of vehicles of all kinds.

A vehicle much in fashion at this period was the curricle, which had been in use for some time in Italy, where it was suspended from leather braces. Springs were added by the French, and, on its being introduced here, the English altered the shape, giving the back a graceful ogee curve, improved the hood, and added a spring bar across the horses’ backs. It was a vehicle of easy draught, and could be driven at great speed. Unfortunately it was rather dangerous if the horse shied or stumbled, and this tended to reduce the demand for it, and it was gradually superseded by the cabriolet, though Charles Dickens used one as soon as he could afford it, and Count D’Orsay had one made as late as 1836.

The vehicle called the briska, or britchka, was introduced about 1818 from Austria. It was hung both upon C springs and elliptic springs, and was made in various sizes for different requirements. It was nearly straight along the bottom. The hind panel was ogee shaped, and the front terminated in a square boot. There was a rumble behind, and the back seat was fitted with a hood which could be raised or lowered at pleasure, and the knees were covered by a folding knee flap. This was an inconvenient vehicle for our climate, as only half the number could be sheltered in wet weather that could be accommodated in dry. It was very fashionable for a time, but died out about 1840.