Carriages and carts; Communication and traffic; Great Britain -- Social life and customs; Vehicles -- History
The lady is seated on the floor boards of a springless four-wheeled
cart or waggon, covered in with a tile that could be raised or drawn
aside; the body of the vehicle is of carved wood and the outer edges
of the wheels are painted grey to represent iron tires. The conveyance
is drawn by two horses driven by a postillion who bestrides that on
the near-side. The traces are apparently of rope, and the outer trace
of the postillion’s horse is represented as passing under the saddle
girth, a length of leather (?) being let in for the purpose; the traces
are attached to swingle-bars carried on the end of a cross piece
secured to the base of the pole where it meets the body.
Carriages of some kind appear also to have been used by men of rank
when travelling on the continent. _The Expeditions to Prussia and
the Holy Land of Henry, Earl of Derby, in 1390 and 1392-3_ (Camden
Society’s Publications, 1894), indicate that the Earl, afterwards King
Henry IV. of England, travelled on wheels at least part of the way
through Austria.
The accounts kept by his Treasurer during the journey contain several
entries relative to carriages; thus on November 14, 1392, payment is
made for the expenses of two equerries named Hethcote and Mansel, who
were left for one night at St. Michael, between Leoban and Kniltelfeld,
with thirteen carriage horses. On the following day the route lay over
such rugged and mountainous country that the carriage wheels were
broken despite the liberal use of grease; and at last the narrowness of
the way obliged the Earl to exchange his own carriage for two smaller
ones better suited to the paths of the district.
The Treasurer also records the sale of an old carriage at Friola
for three florins. The exchange of the Earl’s “own carriage” is the
significant entry: it seems very unlikely that a noble of his rank
would have travelled so lightly that a single cart would contain his
own luggage and that of his personal retinue; and it is also unlikely
that he used one baggage cart of his own. The record points directly to
the conclusion that the carriages were passenger vehicles used by the
Earl himself.
CONVEYANCES IN HENRY VI.’s TIME.
It was probably possession of roads unworthy of the name that deterred
the English from following the example of their continental neighbours,
for forty years later the horse-litter was still the only conveyance
used by ladies. On July 13, 1432, King Henry VI. writes to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Winchester and Durham, and the
High Treasurer, in connection with the journeyings of Joan of Navarre,
widow of Henry IV.:—
“And because we suppose that she will soon remove from the place where
she is now, that ye order for her also horses for two chares and let
her remove thence into whatever place within our kingdom that she
pleases.”
“CHARIOTS” FIRST USED ON GREAT OCCASIONS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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