Posted in A Walk With Jane Austen, Architecture, Bath, Georgian Life, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency style, Regency Travel, Regency World, tagged Amanda Parr, Bath, Walk through Bath on March 17, 2010| 1 Comment »
This link to the BBC site will lead you to a video of a walk with Amanda Parr through Bath. You will need a Real Player.
Other posts about Bath on this site:
The Comforts of Bath: Thomas Rowlandson
The Viscount and the Toll Keeper’s Daughter: How Thomas Thynne Never Became the Marquess of Bath
Posted in jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency Transportation, Regency Travel, Regency World, Travel, tagged Regency, Regency carriages, Regency Travel on March 12, 2010| 3 Comments »
This carriage database discusses the history of the carriage and its uses over time. Included are links to specific makes of carriages, which lead to more detailed information or definition about that type, ie. landau, barouche, mail coach, phaeton, etc. In some instances, images accompany the pages. (Click on reference, then carriage). Update: Something seems to be wrong with the first link to the carriage database. I shall update this post as soon as I find the link again. This link to A Catalogue of Horse drawn vehicles 1896 catalogue of E. S. Annison, Coach Builder, of Hull, features drawings of his carriages and their latest design (late 19th century). Internet Archive provides a downloadable PDF book with images, Carriages and Coaches: their history and their evolution, fully illustrated with reproductions from old prints, contemporary drawings and photographs (1912). This entry in Carriages in Indopediais contemporary and provides links to definitions and information.
Mail Coach, 1827
The Georgian Index features an excellent page on Carriages and their Parts. Highways and Horses, Athol Maudslay, 1888 is an illustrated Google book that discusses carriages and transportation during the Victorian period in great detail. On the fronticepiece, Mr. Maudslay writes :
// More about the topic on this blog:
Posted in jane austen, Regency Customs, Regency Life, Regency London, Regency Transportation, Regency Travel, Regency walk, Victorian Era, Working class, tagged hackney cab, hansom cab, horse drawn cabs, Regency Transportation, Regency Travel on November 17, 2009| 8 Comments »
Another book review so soon on this blog? Well, yes. This book from Shire Publications, Victorian and Edwardian Horse Cabs by Trevor May, is short, just 32 pages long, but it is filled with many facts and rare images of interest to lovers of history. In Jane Austen’s day most people walked to work, town, church, and market square, or to their neighbors. Six miles was not considered an undue distance to travel by foot one way. The gentry were another breed. They either owned their own carriages or hired a public horse cab. These equipages were available as early as the 1620’s.
Hackneys, or public carriages for hire made their first significant appearance in the early 17th century. By 1694, these vehicles had increased to such a number that a body of Hackney Coach Commissioners was established in London. The commissioners dealt out licences, which was a bit of a joke, for a mere four inspectors were responsible for over 1,000 vehicles.
Hackney Coach 1680
Most of these licensed hackney coaches were purchased second hand. All that an enterprising person needed to establish his own hackney coach business was enough money for a used carriage and three horses, two that worked in rotation, and one that could be used as a replacement in case of injury or illness. The death of a horse could lead to a cab owner’s financial ruin. Another important ingredient was housing for the horses.
Hackney Coach 1800. Image @Wikimedia Commons
By, 1823, the lighter horse cabs began to replace cumbersome hackney coaches in great quantity, and by the mid 1830’s, the hansom cab set the new standard for modern horse cabs. Aloysius Hansom, an architect, designed the first carriage. When Hansom went bankrupt through poor investments, John Chapman took over, designing an even lighter, more efficient cab, one whose framework did not strike the horses on their backs or sides whenever a carriage ran over an obstacle in the road.
Hansom Cab
Commercial cab firms tended to be small, even as late as 1892. Only one or two proprietors provided a large number or variety of equipages, like Alfred Pargetter, whose concern advertised removal carriages, cabs, and funeral coaches for hire. While cabs were licensed, their drivers were not and the road could present a dangerous obstacle course. The video clip below shows how adroitly horses and carriages managed to avoid each other with seemingly few rules (mostly towards the end of the clip). Notice how some lucky individual horses pulled relatively light loads compared to other horses forced to pull heavy carts.
These two video clips, one from 1903 and the other from 1896 (unbelievable!) show the end of an era, for by 1914, motorized vehicles were rapidly replacing the horse-drawn cart.
I recommend this book to anyone with an insatiable appetite for a pictorial history on a particular topic. Trevor May is an expert on the Victorian era, and he has managed to squeeze more information about horse-drawn cabs in this short book (more a thick pamphlet) than I have read before. The images are simply splendid.
Posted in jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency style, Regency Transportation, Regency Travel, Regency World, tagged Duke of Wellington, Hyde Park, Hyde Park Corner Tollgate, Regency London on October 31, 2009| 8 Comments »
“The last time! a going! gone.”
“Auctioneer.“Down! down! derry down!”
“Public.
A toll-gate was moved in 1721 from Piccadilly, near Berkeley Street and the present location of the Ritz Hotel, to the west end of Hyde Park in London. It was a real barrier, its gates stretching across the road, and the area was illuminated by a dozen oil lamps before the age of gas. (London, Vol 1, Charles Knight) After passing through the toll, the first building travelers encountered was “Number One”, London, or Apsley House. The residence was named after Baron Apsley, who built the house in 1771. Its most famous and recognizable resident was The Duke Of Wellington. Hyde Park Corner tollgate was one of the busiest tollgates in London, and remained active until 1825, when it was dismantled piece by piece and sold.
Sir,
I have taken the liberty of enclosing you a representation of a scene which took place at Hyde-park-corner last Tuesday, October 4th, being no less than the public sale of the toll-house, and all the materials enumerated in the accompanying catalogue. If you were not present, the drawing I have sent may interest you as a view of the old toll-house and the last scene of its eventful history. You are at liberty to make what use of it you please. The sale commenced at one o’clock, the auctioneer stood under the arch before the door of the house one the north side of Piccadilly. Several carriage folks and equestrians, unconscious of the removal of the toll, stopped to pay, whilst the drivers of others passed through knowingly, with a look of satisfaction at their liberation from the accustomed restriction at that place. The poor dismantled house without a turnpike man, seemed “almost afraid to know itself”—”Othello’s occupation was gone.” By this time, if the conditions of the auction have been attended to, not a vestige is left on the spot. I have thought this event would interest a mind like yours, which permits not any change in the history of improvement, or of places full of old associations, to take place without record.I remain, sir,
Yours, &c.
A CONSTANT READER.
These entries come from the October 4th Every-Day Book by William Hone, 1825-26,. The following account relates the dismantling of the property:
The sale by auction of the “toll-houses” on the north and south side of the road, with the “weighing machine,” and lamp-posts at Hyde-park-corner, was effected by Mr. Abbott, the estate agent and appraiser, by order of the trustees of the roads. They were sold for building materials; the north toll-house was in five lots, the south in five other lots; the gates, rails posts, and inscription boards were in five more lots; and the engine-house was also in five lots. At the same time, the weighing machine and toll-houses at Jenny’s Whim bridge were sold in seven lots; and the toll-house near the bun-house at Chelsea, with lamp posts on the road, were likewise sold in seven lots. The whole are entirely cleared away, to the relief of thousands of persons resident in these neighbourhoods. It is too much to expect every thing vexatious to disappear at once; this is a very good beginning, and if there be truth in the old saying, we may expect “a good ending.”
More on the Topic
Posted in art, Regency Life, Regency style, Regency Transportation, Regency Travel, Regency World, tagged Joseph Appleyard, Post-Boys, Yorkshire Coaching Inns on October 1, 2009| 2 Comments »
“Riding Through the Ridings”: Random Sketches of Yorkshire Coaching Inns was written and illustrated in 1947 by Joseph Appleyard. An unpublished book, it has found a home online through his son, David. The illustrations fit so well with my recent posts for post boys and the postal mail, that I was eager to share them with you,with Mr. Appleyard’s kind permission.
The website contains the full transcript and most of the illustrations for “Riding through the Ridings”, whose foreword by Major J. Fairfax-Blakeborough M.C. is telling:
Some of us are old enough to have talked with the last of the drivers of stage coaches, with post-boys and quaint old ostlers, who could recall the music of the fast-trotting horses and the note on the guard’s horn. Such have heard at first hand of all the bustle there was when the four steaming horses were to be speedily changed, relieved by others standing in readiness for the next stage. More there are who remember the long rows of stables, loose-boxes, saddle rooms and post-boy’s quarters — unused and maybe derelict — in the spacious yards of the old coaching inns. These have also lived to see the end of coach-horse breeding in Yorkshire and the passing of the fairs in the country, at which hundreds of animals were yearly bought to horse the coaches in various parts of the country. Later, in pre-motor days, the best carriage-horses were sold in large numbers at these same Yorkshire fairs; to buyers from all over the world. The horse fairs as they declined, were the swan song of the long ranges of stabling, which were an essential adjunct and integral part of every coaching inn. All this formed the last remaining links with the spacious, leisurely, picturesque coaching-days.
Picking up the mail
Major Fairfax-Blakeboroughsums up the illustrations nicely:
The beautifully executed illustrations in this book are marked by their accuracy in technique and detail — no easy achievement in view of the distinctive dress, horse, harness and so forth, which belonged to those days and to a great extent passed with them. Contemporary literature is pregnant with references to the particular care and pride those who played their part in the coaching era took with regard to all these details and how the young sons of patrician families, did not consider their education complete until they could tool a four-in-hand and dress the part with such meticulous exactness that they were mistaken for professional coachmen. The fascinating illustration on the succeeding pages emphasise more than any other of the previous volumes dealing with the epoch, the poetry and romance surrounding it and the important part the old posting houses plated in the life of the nation and as the very hub of their own immediate area.
coach Horse, Joseph Appleyard 1947
The site also offers a short biography of the artist (1908-1960), and contains photographs, published works, sketches, drawings, book illustrations and newspaper articles of his life and career.
Joe Appleyard attended local evening classes at Leeds School of Art where his fondness of animals gave rise to his interest in Romany and Circus life. He worked full time in window display and general advertising, and painted the scenery of Airedale, Wharfedale and Washburn Valleys in his spare time. Appleyard first began showing his paintings at the Leeds City Art Gallery in 1934, and by 1947 had exhibited over two hundred different works. He co-founded Otley Arts Club, and today his sketchbooks are in a permanent collection at Leeds Art Gallery. His St Leger and racehorse portraits and studies are in a permanent collection at Doncaster Art Gallery.
A light post horse, Joseph Appleyard
Joe Appleyard, Self portrait, age 26
David Appleyard writes about designing a website for his father:
The Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, has three large oil paintings on permanent display, now well restored to remove fifty years of nicotine. The nicotine would not have bothered Joe for he liked his Three Castles cigarettes and as his self-portrait shows political correctness was not an issue in those days! Some twelve years ago I tried to publish “Riding through the Ridings”. My efforts were unsuccessful and the project lay dormant until 1999 when I decided to “publish” it on the Internet. With access to Joe’s remarkably good records the site has grown and showcases more than 200 examples of his work as my tribute to a wonderful father and talented artist.
To see the rest of the illustrations and read the book, click on this link: Joseph Appleyard, Author or type http://www.josephappleyard.co.uk
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