Carriages & Coaches: Their History & Their EvolutionStraus, Ralph
History
Carriages & Coaches: Their History & Their Evolution
Straus, Ralph
Carriages and carts
To this period belongs the present State Coach of Great Britain—that
famous “glass-coach” which Londoners had an opportunity of seeing
at King George’s Coronation. Who built it is not known. Sir William
Chambers, “an amateur,” as Thrupp is careful to point out, designed
it in 1761 for George III. “There is come forth,” wrote Walpole to
Horace Mann, “a new State Coach which has cost £8000. It is a beautiful
object, though crowded with improprieties. Its supports are Tritons,
not very well adapted to land carriage, and formed of palm trees, which
are as little aquatic as Tritons are terrestrial. The crowd to see it
on the opening of Parliament was greater than at the Coronation, and
much more damage done.”
The ornamentation of the coach, indeed, is a mass of contradictions,
but Sir William Chambers did no more than follow tradition. For over a
century the principal State Coaches had had Tritons and other queerly
inept figures, and Tritons there were in the new coach for King George.
Gorgeousness was aimed at, and gorgeousness obtained. There is a
detailed contemporary description of this coach which may be given with
an account of the expenditure, not quite £8000 as Walpole writes, which
it entailed.
“The carriage is composed of four Tritons, who support the
body by cables fastened to the roots of their fins: The two
placed on the front of the carriage, bear the driver on their
shoulders, and are represented in the action of sounding
shells to announce the approach of the monarch of the sea; and
those on the back part, carry the imperial fasces, topt with
tridents instead of the ancient axes. The driver’s footboard
is a large scollop shell, supported by a bunch of reeds,
and other marine plants. The pole represents a bundle of
lances, and the wheels are imitated from those of the ancient
triumphal chariots. The body of the coach is composed of eight
palm-trees, which, branching out at the top, sustain the roof.
The four angular trees are loaded with trophies, allusive to
the victories obtained by _Britain_ during the course of the
present glorious war. On the center of the roof stand three
boys, representing the Genii of _England_, _Scotland_, and
_Ireland_, supporting on their heads the Imperial Crown, and
holding in their hands the scepter, the sword of state, and
ensigns of knighthood. Their bodies are adorned with festoons
of laurel, which fall from thence towards the four corners of
the roof. The intervals between the palm-trees which form the
body of the coach, are filled in the upper parts with plates
of glass, and below with pannels adorned with paintings.
On the front pannel is represented BRITANNIA seated on a
throne, holding in her hand, a staff of liberty, attended
by _Religion_, _Justice_, _Wisdom_, _Valour_, _Fortitude_,
and _Victory_, presenting her with a garland of laurels. On
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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