Books We Love Insider Blog: Regency Travel Part 2 – the Vehicles by Victoria Chatham

In my last post I wrote about the horses used for pulling vehicles in the Regency era. In this post, I will address the vehicles themselves. There is, I think, the romantic idea of what a coach and four should look like, largely engendered by illustrations for British Christmas cards. From those, it would be easy to think of the coach as being of British origin which is far from the fact. The English word ‘coach’ derives from the Hungarian post town of Kocs (pronounced koch) which was introduced into England from France during the reign of Elizabeth 1, reputedly by Henry FitzAlan, 19^th Earl of Arundel.

The coach, as we think of it today, is a closed-cab heavy, four-wheeled vehicle drawn by four or six horses. This, together with harness, coachmen, and grooms is termed a turnout. The Four-In-Hand Club of many a Regency tale grew out of a driving club formed in 1807. Four-in-hand means to hold the reins controlling all four horses in one hand, the left, while the whip is held in the right. A ‘veritable whip’ would be someone having mastered the art of driving a coach and four.

The Four-In-Hand Club dictated that their members wear ankle-length drab coats (drab is an undyed light brown wool) fastened with large mother-of-pearl buttons beneath which they sported blue waistcoats with inch-wide yellow stripes. The Barouche Club rules stated that the horses should all be bay and wear silver-mounted harnesses with rosettes at their head.

Gigs, curricles, chaises, and phaetons are the usual vehicles of choice by Regency characters. A gig was a light, two-wheeled cart with fixed shafts drawn by one horse or pony. The curricle was also a light, two-wheeled vehicle but big enough for a driver and passenger. This was the most favoured vehicle for the young man about town, particularly if he could afford a carefully matched pair of horses to pull it. The chaise or post-chaise was a versatile closed-body four-wheeled carriage. It could seat two or four persons and could be drawn by two or four horses which, because the chaise was designed as a fast means of travel, would be changed every ten- to fifteen miles.

Postillion boots
Note the right boot is larger

This type of carriage could also be driven by postillions rather than a coachman. The postillions, often in the livery of their employer, rode the horse on the left side of the pair, their right leg being protected from the central wooden shaft and the right hand, or ‘offside’ horse, by a heavy, rigid boot. Horses are typically mounted on the left, or ‘nearside’, this method left over from medieval times. Right-handed knights wore their swords on their left side to make the sword easier to draw. Mounting their horses from the left side was simply the means to not have the sword in the way when they swung their right leg over the saddle.

Ladies who enjoyed the sport of driving might be seen out and about in a phaeton, an open well-sprung four-wheeled carriage with the pair of back wheels larger than the front pair. It could be drawn by one or two horses and the very skilled or daring whipster, either male or female, might opt for the high-perch phaeton. The unfortunate downside of this particular vehicle was the fact that it was notoriously unstable, particularly when cornering and especially in the hands of an unskilled driver.

High Perch Phaeton

There were also barouches, landaus, and hackneys, the latter developing into the familiar black, two-wheeled conveyance drawn by one horse so familiar in Victorian times and continuing today with the familiar black London taxicab. Travelling anywhere during the Regency era could be fraught with danger, from the notoriously bad roads made worse by inclement weather, attacks by highwaymen, poor maintenance which could cause the harness to break or wheels to detach from the axles or inexperienced or careless coachmen.

Inspiration for my heroine's driving scenes in His Dark Enchantress came from the notorious Lady Letitia Lade and from more recent history, Mrs. Cynthia Haydon. Here is a short excerpt.

Lucius’ prized Hungarian horses, polished so they gleamed like copper and harnessed once more, were hitched to the barouche without further incident. Jem and Sid held the leader’s heads while Emmaline draped herself in the driving coat and settled herself on the box. Juliana handed her a three-cornered driving hat and settled herself against the buttoned velvet squabs as Noble swung up onto the seat beside Emmaline.

“Have no fear, Mr. Noble, I had an excellent teacher.” Emmaline carefully threaded the reins through the fingers of her left hand. “I drove a pony and trap when I turned six years old, a pair when I turned nine, a tandem when I turned eleven and my first four-in-hand on my fourteenth birthday. His Lordship shall not be disappointed.”

He might not be disappointed, Emmaline thought as she pointed the leaders out of the yard, but he would undoubtedly be furious.