[51] See note on p. 192.
[52] According to Mr. Moore, whose account of this matter seems perfectly clear, the actual vehicle which proved so popular when plying the streets contained very much more of Chapman’s work than of Hansom’s, and, indeed, if full justice had been done, these light carriages should have come down to posterity as chapmans and not hansoms at all. On the other hand it is quite possible, that but for Hansom’s work, Chapman would never have given such careful attention to this class of vehicle.
[53] It seems, however, that so long as ten years before one-horse cars of this form had been plying for hire in Birmingham and Liverpool.
[54] Modern Carriages. Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. London, 1905.
[55] Bridges Adams has an amusing passage on the question of colour. He had his own ideas upon the best colours to use on a carriage body. “For bright sunny days,” he thinks, “the straw or sulphur yellow is very brilliant and beautiful; but for the autumnal haze, the rich deep orange hue conveys the most agreeable sensations. The greens used are of innumerable tints, commencing with the yellowish olive, and gradually darkening till they are barely distinguishable from black. Neither apple green, grass green, sea green, nor any green of a bluish tint, can be used in carriage painting with good effect as a ground colour; but in some species of light carriages a pleasing effect may be produced for summer by the imitation of the variegated grasses.” Quite a poetical idea! “Blues,” he continues, “were formerly principally used as a ground colour for bodies, to contrast with a red carriage and framework. Of late very dark blues have been used as a general ground colour, and when new they are very rich, being a glazed or partially transparent colour; but they very soon become worn and faded, the least speck of dust disfiguring them. Blue is also a cold colour, and while it is unfitted for summer by reason of its easy soiling, it is unpleasant in winter, owing to its want of warmth.”
[56] For full and particular accounts of all such carriages as have been constructed since the middle of last century, the reader is referred to the various trade journals. Further information is to be obtained from the Reports on carriages at the successive London and Paris Exhibitions. Here the more important differences between English, French, and Austrian carriages are clearly shown in a language which is not too technical for the ordinary reader to understand.
[57] This was also the case in France.
[58] There is an interesting passage in the 1878 Report which may be quoted here. “It is somewhat singular,” this runs, “that while the attention of the English coachbuilders has, for the past few years, been directed to perfect an arrangement to open and close landau heads in a simple and effectual manner, the French builders have paid little or no heed to the attainment of this desideratum, but have instead adopted a plan which allows of the doors of a landau being opened when the glass is up, being first introduced by M. Kellner ... in 1866.... The simplest method is to have two pieces of brass, about ten inches long, in the form of a groove, for the glass frame to slide in, hinged to the upper extremities of the door pillars, and to close down on the fence rail when not required for use.”
[59] Here, I suppose, should be included the Eridge cart, invented by Lord Abergavenny. It holds four persons on two parallel seats.
[60] The phaeton has found particular favour in France. At the Paris Exhibition in 1878 was shown a phaeton built at Rouen, which, according to the official Report, was “the finest small carriage exhibited in the French department for ingenuity and fitness for work.”