Carriages & Coaches: Their History & Their EvolutionStraus, Ralph
History
Carriages & Coaches: Their History & Their Evolution
Straus, Ralph
Carriages and carts
In England glass seems to have been reserved for the private coaches.
For the commoner hackneys a substitute had been found. “For want of
Glasses to our Coach,” wrote the inimitable Ned Ward in _The London
Spy_, a book whose outspokenness unfortunately must, I suppose, have
prevented its reprinting in modern days, “we drew up our Tin Sashes,
pink’d like the bottom of a Cullender, that the Air might pass thro’
the holes, and defend us from Stifling.”
If, however, contemporary plates are singularly scarce, and the
historians have little to say of the period, there is a new source
of information to be tapped, at any rate in this country, in the
advertisements which just now began to fill whole pages in the
periodicals. Of these I may quote one or two. One deals specifically
with the question of glass windows:—
“These are to give notice to all Persons that have occasions
for Coach Glasses, or Glasses for Sash Windows, that they may
be furnished with all sorts, at half the prices they were
formerly sold for.”
Twelve inches square cost half a crown, thirty-six inches two pounds
ten shillings.
Other advertisements concern the coaches themselves. In Anne’s day
calashes, chaizes, both two-and four-wheeled, as well as the larger
chariots—these often flamboyantly decorated—were constantly for sale.
“A very fine CHAIZE,” we read, “very well Carved, gilded and
painted, and lined with Blue Velvet, and a very good HORSE for
it, are to be sold together, or apart.”
“A curious 4-Wheel SHAZE, Crane Neck’d, little the worse for
wearing, it is to be used with 1 or 2 Horses, and there is a
fine Harness for one Horse, and a Reputable Sumpture Laopard
Covering.”
Here then is mention of a four-wheeled chaise with a perch curved in
front after the German fashion. Other chaises for sale had only two
wheels:—
“At the Greyhound in West Smithfield is to be sold a
Two-Wheeled Chaize, with a pair of Horses well match’d: It has
run over a Bank and a Ditch 5 Foot High; and likewise through
a deep Pit within the Ring at Hide Park, in the presence of
several persons of Quality; which are very satisfied it cannot
be overturn’d with fair Driving. It is to be Lett for 7s. 6d.
a Day, with some Abatement for a longer Time.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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