And Now, Another Report from Carriage and Driver

It’s September once more, and time for a new report from Carriage and Driver with a preview of the upcoming decade’s hottest new vehicles. Whether you’re looking for a sporty performance model or a practical family vehicle, Carriage and Driver will tell you all you need to know!

First up, this 1816 model landaulette (as illustrated by R. Ackermann—a name well known to Car and Driver readers, I’m sure!), perfect for the smaller household with seating for two and comfortably drawn by one horse. Quite smart!

When more seating is required, Car and Driver readers can’t do better than this Patent Landau built and patented by Birch and Son of Great Queen-street in Lincoln’s-Inn-fields. Mr. Birch “has obtained a patent for improvements in the construction of the roofs and upper quarters, not only of landaus, but of all other carriages which are made to fall down. By these improvements the objections against landaus upon the old plan, either as town, pleasure, or travelling carriages, are entirely removed. The head or roof, and upper parts, by the new invention, have an even smooth surface, like a well built town coach, shew no outward joints on the top of the windows, or locks on the roof; yet are so completely secured as to prevent any possibility of being opened from the outside: it removes the inconveniences arising from the leather contracting, or drawing the fore-lights out of their perpendicular position, it causing the shutters and glasses to act properly, and renders it impossible for water to penetrate the leather or to lie on the roof.” (Ackermann’s Repository, February 1809)

For anyone who admires barouches but requires more seating than a barouche provides, perhaps this handsome caleche will answer. With enclosed seating for four, you’ll be out of the weather and very much in style.

If your fancy runs to foreign vehicles, this droschki may be the carriage for you.  Its form is particularly graceful and elegant, and models seating one or two are available. The Emperor of Russia recently made a gift of one to his majesty King George IV. (Ackermann's Repository, August 1820)

And speaking of Russia…with the approach of winter, our readers might find this next model of interest. This Imperial Sledge, as seen in a outing attended by a number of monarchs, nobility, and other great persons during the recent congress in Vienna, makes getting around during the snowy season both possible and pleasurable. With its phaeton form and elegant decoration, you’ll drive like an emperor! (Ackermann’s Repository, April 1816)

What say you, Carriage and Driver readers? Is there a model here you’d like to take out for a test drive?

And now, a Report from Carriage and Driver

It’s September, and that means it’s time for Carriage and Driver’s preview of the upcoming decade’s hottest new vehicles. Whether you’re looking for a sporty performance model or a practical family vehicle, Carriage and Driver will tell you all!

Anyone looking for an eminently useful all-purpose vehicle need look no further than Elliott’s Patent Eccentric Landaulet or Chariot. Less cumbersome than older model chariots and therefore less tiring for horses, it yet includes a spacious boot for luggage and comfortable seating out of the weather for longer journeys. (Ackermann’s Repository, November 1809):

Readers of Carriage and Driver know how keen we are on keeping abreast of the latest technological developments, so this Landaulet with Birch’s patent Roof and Ackermann’s patent Moveable Axles will surely be of great interest to our readers. Note that the roof can be folded back on fine days or raised in inclement weather by a series of ingenious folding panels and sections. The moveable axle system is discussed at length in both a pamphlet and in the March 1819 edition of Ackermann’s Repository:

Corinthians looking for a sportier vehicle might turn their attention to this Light Phaeton, also equipped with Ackermann’s patent moveable axles and built by Mr. Kinder at Gray’s Inn Lane. This stylish carriage, with its raised rear seat for a groom or tiger, combines good looks and performance, and will surely draw all eyes during afternoon forays to Hyde Park (Ackermann’s Repository, July 1819):

Mr. Dodd’s excellently appointed Light Phaeton, pictured here, might appeal to the gentleman of more sedate habits and possessed of the best taste. The attention to fine detail in ornamentation and provision of comfort makes this a most desirable vehicle, one which also might be driven with ease by the fairer sex (Ackermann’s Repository, November 1819):

For the last word in a comfortable luxury vehicle, readers of Carriage and Driver might look no further than this elegant Barouche, equipped with Ackermann’s Patent Moveable Axles. From the folding roof to the deeply cushioned seats, this carriage will provide passengers with a driving experience unequalled by any (Ackermann’s Repository, January 1820):

Which would you consider taking for a test drive, Carriage and Driver readers? :)

Horsing Around, Part II: Good Habits

Last week we discussed horses and carriages and guys driving too fast (and probably not asking directions). This time, I’d like to talk about the other side of horsing around: riding.

As you might have guessed from looking at the clothes, there weren't many forms of physical activity or exercise that women and girls in the 1800s could do and still be thought proper--so if you’ve always hated gym, you were probably born in the wrong century. One of the few (I’ll talk about the others in a future post) was riding.

Again, we’re speaking relatively here. Grooms and stablehands did all the horse care and saddling and so on, which is half of what makes riding such great exercise. All an upper class nineteenth century girl had to do was amble down to the stables and climb aboard…after she’d changed into the proper costume, of course. You couldn’t wear something frothy made of silk and lace when you were about to gallop around the muddy countryside on horseback, so you wore a riding habit.

A riding habit was generally made of a sturdy fabric like wool broadcloth, trimmed maybe with little luxurious touches like a velvet collar or a fine linen stock (high neckcloth, like a man’s cravat). It generally consisted of a skirt and coat, cut very form-fitting. A hat, often copied from a man’s style but with a veil added in, and gloves completed the costume. Pantaloons were worn underneath it for modesty’s sake in case (horrors!) you fell off, and the skirt was cut with extra fabric so it draped nicely when you were settled into your sidesaddle.

Yes, sidesaddle. Women in polite society did not ride astride. Sidesaddles have a sort of crook that you hook one leg over while the other has a stirrup. It sounds more precarious than it actually is, and many, many women were quite dashing riders.

Horseback riding was not just for country life. A favorite activity for elegant young women during the London Season was riding in Hyde Park, either on the sandy path known as “Rotten Row” or on the Ladies’ Mile. A morning ride was a fabulous way to see and be seen (remember, you were wearing that very handsome and figure-revealing habit), gossip with friends and flirt with the boys, and make plans for afternoon shopping or evening partying. Horsing around, indeed!

Horsing Around, Part I: Tilburys, Broughams, Cabriolets, Curricles, Landaus, Phaetons, and Barouches

During most of the nineteenth century, everyone horsed around.

And I mean that quite literally. If you wanted to go somewhere, chances were you used a horse to either ride or to draw a cart or carriage of some sort.

Relying on horses for transportation meant several things. It meant you had to have a place for them to live (stables and a paddock). You had to have people to take care of them (grooms and stable boys) and appropriate food and care (proper shoeing and veterinary care when necessary). And you had to have means to actually use them, like saddles and tack or a carriage…which in turn necessitated having coachmen and other staff.

As you might guess, having your own horses and carriage meant you were probably at least semi-wealthy--and the more horses and carriages you owned, the wealthier you were. Having an elegant carriage and matched horses to draw it (grays were the most popular carriage horses) was the nineteenth century version of having a Lexus or a Mercedes in the garage. Those who couldn’t afford to keep their own horse and carriage could rent one when necessary, usually from a local inn or a livery stable.

Relying on horses to get around also meant that you didn’t just up and hop on your horse to go to the mall or out for pizza on a whim…because it takes a while to get a horse saddled or hitched up to a carriage. It also meant that if you were traveling a long distance with your own horses, you could only go as far and as fast in a day as the road conditions would allow…and stop for the night when the horses were tired. Alternately, you could travel longer distances more quickly on the system of stage coaches that traveled between most of the major cities and towns of England, stopping at special coaching inns to change horses periodically.

Carriages came in many forms, and different styles went in and out of fashion over the years. They could seat as few as two or as many as six, could have two or four wheels, be drawn by one, two, or four horses, be open to the air or completely enclosed. A wealthy young man in the 1820s trying to impress the girls might drive a curricle, a small open two-wheeled, two-horse vehicle, or a tilbury (similar but drawn by one horse). His parents would have a handsomely-painted barouche, a closed carriage with four wheels that seated four passengers plus a footman or two hanging on in the back and perhaps also a cabriolet or phaeton that they could drive themselves.

Coaching was also something of a hobby for wealthy young men. Someone who was skilled in the “noble art of handling the ribbons” wasn’t doing his sisters’ hair wraps, but was an exceptionally skilled coachman ("ribbons" was slang for reins). Young men being remarkably unchanged over the centuries, coaching generally meant racing…and, of course, betting on those races. The Prince of Wales himself was known in his younger days as a keen coachman, frequently trying to shave precious minutes off his record traveling between Brighton and London.

By the 1840s rail transport began to boom and eventually replaced the stage coaches, and later on in the 1890s inventors tinkered with engine-driven cars, but the horse was pretty much it for most of the nineteenth century.

Next week: Horsing Around, Part II: Good Habits