High Perch Phaeton
Gentle readers, Patty of Brandy Parfums is an avid fan of history, horses, Jane Austen, and Georgette Heyer. She is also a devoted reader of this blog. Just recently she wrote ‘Georgette Heyer for Horse Lovers’ for the October issue of Horse Directory Magazine. Patty has graciously allowed me to reproduce her article for Jane Austen’s World.
Walnut Hill Driving Competition, the largest driving competition in North America held each August in Pittsford NY, has no speed classes for high-perch phaetons. They tip over too easily to be safe. Yet in the colorful, elegant world of English author Georgette Heyer’s romance novels, many with references to horses, intrepid heros and heroines drive these carriages around corners at high speeds without tipping over.
Georgette Heyer published her first novel in 1921, when she was nineteen, and went on to write over fifty novels. She was especially known for her witty Regency romance novels, and was widely copied and imitated. If you have never heard of her, it is because after a badly made movie based on one of her novels, The Reluctant Widow, came out in 1951, Heyer put in her will that she did not want any other of her books turned into movies.
In Heyer’s Bath Tangle, Major Hector Kirkby questions Lady Serena Carlow about her choice of a high-perch phaeton with its “bottom five feet from the ground” and pair of horses. Major Kirkby says –
‘Serena,-my dearest! I beg you won’t! I know you are an excellent whip, but could you not have a more dangerous carriage!’
‘No! If I were not an excellent whip!…….The difficulty of driving them is what lends a spice!’
Cover of Bath Tangle by Heyer's favorite cover artist, Arthur Barbosa
The Heyer heros and heroines, who are skilled equestrians known as bruising riders, ride horses they treasure, like Maid Marion that Lady Serena rides in Bath Tangle.
By Jove, Lady Serena, you’re a devil to go!’ Mr. Goring exclaimed, in involuntary admiration. She laughed, leaning forward to pat the mare’s steaming neck. ‘I like a slapping pace, don’t you?’
‘I should have called it a splitting pace!’ he retorted…..’My heart was in my mouth when you rode straight for that drop fence!’
The more stable crane necked phaeton with smaller wheels
Because Heyer’s novels take place when horses were used for transportation, carriages and coaches breakdown in many of her books. In The Corinthian, there is little horse activity in the beginning except a coach breaking down, but the hero, Sir Richard Wyndham, a bored bachelor and renowned whip, is sure to get into action at some point in the story. Sir Richard (Ricky) asks his friend, the Honourable Cedric (Ceddie).
Ceddie, were you driving your own horses yesterday?’
‘Dear old boy, of course I was, but what has that to say to anything?’
‘I want ’em,’ said Sir Richard………I must have a fast pair immediately.’
My favorite Heyer novel so far for horseyness is The Quiet Gentleman, a Regency romance and mystery of sorts, with Gervase Frant, the Earl of St Erth, a subdued dandy returning home from military duties at Waterloo. Mr. Warboys says –
‘……..that’s a devilish good-looking hunter you have there, St Erth! Great rump and hocks! Splendid shoulders! Not an inch above fifteen-three, I’ll swear! The very thing for this country!’
‘Oh, he is the loveliest creature!’ Marianne said, patting Cloud’s neck. He makes no objection to carrying me in this absurd fashion: I am sure he must be the best-mannered horse in the world!’
Cover of Infamous Army with horse. Image@Sourcebooks
Georgette Heyer wrote her romance novels over a period of many years and they were always best sellers even during WWII in England, when their lively, entertaining content helped people forget their misery. Heyer also wrote mysteries, and more serious historical fiction like the superb An Infamous Army, which takes place in Brussels in 1815 during the time of Waterloo. Infantry and calvary movements are so accurately described that this book is required reading at Sandhurst.
Other horsey and just plain amusing novels recommended include The Masqueraders, False Colors, Arabella, Sylvester or the Wicked Uncle and The Grand Sophy, a work unfortunately marred by the appearance of a cliché moneylender. Sourcebooks has reissued many of Heyer’s fifty novels and they are proving quite popular – a wonderful diversion for our uncertain times.
More on the topic:
This is the first video of the film, The Reluctant Widow. Only 9 of the 10 videos are featured. Have no fear, this 1951 film is so badly made that you will probably not make it that far. Click on this link to access it.
Jane Austen's World 
Fabulous references to Heyer and her horses! – makes me want to go read them all over again!
Deb
I love Heyer and have loved horses and being around them since I was a child so I was very keen on her detail work regarding the carriages, horses, and the people who rode them. My favorite scenes from Heyer’s books re: horses were from ‘The Nonesuch’, ‘Regency Buck’, and ‘Faro’s Daughter’. Thanks for the great post.
I loved the info. Thank you so much.
Great post! I love Heyer and horses too!
I enjoyed reading about Heyer’s horses and a few of the characters who enjoy them. I’m jotting down the titles for reading. Thanks for sharing!
What about The Grand Sophy! I love that one! Sophy is a first rate whip and rider. Georgette Heyer gets it right with all of her horsey information. I ride and drive and when I am driving I always carry Sophy in my head. I haven’t yet read Bath Tangle but I am going to go order it right now. I think I have almost exhausted all of Ms. Heyer and I will be sad when I have read everything but I can read her again and again. I never tire of her dialogue.
Having just read ‘Faro’s Daughter,’ I can say there is a great deal about horses in that one, as well. There is quite a description of the race between Max Ravenscar’s greys and James Filey’s Chestnuts. Why the color should matter aside from aesthetics is beyond me, but they never fail to mention it! One picks up that greys are the color of preference for the Haut ton. I believe that race was in a high perch phaeton, as well. Why not?!
Thanks for sharing!
I have not read Heyer!
Have a good evening!
What a marvellous site! So glad I found it.
[…] Magazine. Accompanying this post is the layout of her article . You might also be interested in an article she wrote about the horses in Georgette Heyer’s novels. Thank you, Patty, for keeping us in your thoughts and updating us on these wonderful horses. First […]