Road Scrapings: Coaches and CoachingHaworth, M. E. (Martin E.)
History
Road Scrapings: Coaches and Coaching
Haworth, M. E. (Martin E.)
Coaching (Transportation)
Public and private conveyances in Austria and Hungary--An English
dragsman posed--The Vienna race-meeting--Gentleman "Jocks"--A moral
exemplified.
All matters connected with the management and treatment of horses are
better understood in Austria and Hungary than in any other part of the
Continent; but even there they have not arrived at the completeness
so familiar here. The public conveyances still partake of the genus
diligence, though they have the advantage of being divided into two
classes--first and second. In the latter smoking is allowed.
The horses are yoked much in the same manner as in France--three at
wheel, and any number in pairs before them, as the nature of the road
may require. The travelling pace is about eight English miles per
hour, and to this they adhere. The length of the posts, or stages,
makes a journey more tedious than it would otherwise be, as it always
conveys the impression that the last four or five miles of the sixteen
or eighteen has to be performed by jaded cattle, which must use them
up more quickly, in the long run, than letting them work in more
reasonable distances. If economy be the object, it must certainly be
negatived in the end by the last four or five miles which are tacked on
to every post.
The conductor, or guard, goes through the whole journey, be it long or
short; but the driver is changed at every stage, with the horses. The
public conveyances at Vienna and Pesth are excellent, very superior
to anything we have in London. The carriages for hire in the streets
consist of open britzskas and landaus, with pairs of horses, which
are of a very good class. The drivers are very respectable men, and
excellent coachmen. They drive very fast, and, though the streets are
narrow and tortuous, collisions are very rare. There are also close
carriages (broughams) with one horse or a pair, the former being called
_coupés_, and not held in much favour with the _élite_.
The tariff is not excessive, and a wrangle is rarely heard.
With reference to private equipages, although they imitate as much
as possible the English style, they invariably fail in some little
particular, which, to an English critic, stamps the turn-out as
continental. For instance, the coachman sits low, with his knees bent,
having one rein in each hand; the horses are so coupled that their
heads touch each other; the pole-pieces are so tight as to destroy any
action which the horses might otherwise display.
Some years ago I made the acquaintance of a noble prince in Hungary,
who owned a large stud of horses of all descriptions--racers, hunters,
harness-horses, and hacks. He invited me to stay with him during the
race-week at Vienna, asking me at the same time if I would drive his
drag each day to the course, assuring me that it was appointed quite in
the English style, and that I should feel myself entirely at home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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