A R 



546 



CAR 



Carriage, prielcs qui regardeiil ks pendnles avec quelques nou- 



* y*""- velles proprietes de la parabole, 1707, p. 49. hist. 



58. De la proportion qui doivent avoir les cylin- 



drcs pour former par leurs sons les accords de la mu- 



. sique, 1709, p. 47, hist. 93. Exp. sur le ressort de 



Pair, 1710, p. 1. hist. 1. Desc. d'un wr enfermS Carriage 

 dans une coque d'une ligne de diametre, el qui ne """"Y 

 ccsse de santiller qnand on I 1 expose an soleil, 1710, 

 hist. 4-2. Alregc de catoptrique, 1710, p. 46. hist. 

 112. Monocliorde. Mac. t. 1. p. 101. (o) 



CARRIAGE. 



CARRIAGE, a general name given to all vehicles 

 used with wheels, for the conveyance of any weight, 

 goods, or passengers ; but now more common- 

 ly applied to those for the latter purpose, such 

 as coach, chaise, &c. In this sense carnages are of 

 undoubted antiquity. They are frequently mentioned 

 under the name of chariots in the Old Testament. 

 Chariots were in use in Greece, particularly at the 

 Olympic games. 



The Romans used carriages of different kinds, and 

 under different names. The arcera is mentioned in 

 the 12 tables ; the lectica followed ; then the car- 

 pentum, and still later the carruca, which last was 

 considered a first rate machine, and often highly or- 



iiamented with gold and precious stones. After these, 

 covered carriages of various kinds were used as ap- 

 pendages of Roman pomp and grandeur, until the 

 manner of thinking which prevailed under the feudal 

 system banished them for a time. Indeed so early 

 as the reign of Julius Caesar, carriages were even let to 

 hire in Rome, as appears from Suetonius, who, speak 

 ing of that emperor, says, Lnngissimas vias incredi- 

 bili celeritate con fecit, expedilus, meritoria rcda, cen- 



iina passuum millia in singulos dies." (See Sue- 

 tonius, lib. i. cap. 57.) In latter times, it would 

 be difficult to say at what precise period, of what 

 kind, or in what nation, carriages were again intro- 

 duced. Historians appear to have taken little inte- 

 rest in them, as few have mentioned them at all, and 

 those few but slightly ; nor ought we to be surpri- 

 sed at this, when we consider the low state of me- 

 chanical arts, the little intercourse between neigh- 

 bouring powers in mercantile matters, and the neces- 

 sity, in feudal times, of princes having their lords and 

 vassals trained up in the use df arms, and, of course, 

 not indulged in any thing bordering upon luxury or 

 effeminacy. In this state <>f things there was hardly 

 an opening for carriages, askings, lords, and com- 

 moners, all rode on horseback ; and even the women 

 and the clergy had no other mode of conveyance, 

 except on mules or asses. Indeed so strong was the 

 prejudice against carriages, -that edicts were publish- 

 ed prohibiting their use, at the same time that they 

 were sometimes allowed, by special favour, to invalids, 

 and women of the highest rank. No wonder then 

 that historians should not accurately detail the intro- 

 duction of carriages, which their princes beheld with 

 a jealous eye, considering them as fit only to ener- 

 vate their vassals, and of course wealcen their own 

 power; and which it is hardly possible they could di- 

 vine, should, at some future period, become not mere- 

 ly of utility, but of absolute necessity ; affording the 

 chief means of internal intercourse betwixt place and 

 place to the inhabitants of almost the whole civilized, 

 world, and their manufacture furnishing employment 

 to thousands. 



It would appear from an ordinance of Philip the 

 Fair of France, issued in 1294, for suppressing luxu- 



ry, that carriages were known at that time in Paris, 

 as the citizens' wives were therein forbid the use of 

 carriages (cars ) About the end of the 13th century, 

 when Charles of Atijou made his entrance into Na- 

 ples, the queen rode in a carriage called at that time 

 caretta, the outside and in.side of which were covered 

 with sky blue velvet, interspersed with golden lilies. 

 The Emperor Frederick III. seems to have Ubed a 

 close carriage in his journies to Frankfort in 1474-5. 

 The Electress of Brandcnburgh, and Duchess of 

 Mecklenburgh, and some others, displayed elegant 

 carriages in 1509- In 1550 there were in Paris 

 three coaches, said by some to have belonged to the 

 queen, to Diana de Poictiers, and to Rene de Laval, 

 Lord of Bois Dauphin, who was such a corpulent 

 and unwieldy nobleman as to be unable to ride on 

 horseback. Others say the three first carriages be. 

 longed to Catherine de Medicis, Diana Duchess of 

 Angouleme, who died 1619, and Christopher de 

 Thou, first president of the Parliament. Henry 

 IV. was assassinated in a coach ; and he appears to 

 have had one only,, from a letter he writes to a 

 friend, in which he says, " I cannot wait upon you 

 to-Hay, because my wife is using my coach." ( Va- 

 rietes Historiques, p. 92. ) 



Roubo, in his voluminous Treatise on Joiner 

 Work, has given drawings of carriages, such as 

 were used in the time of Henry IV. From these 

 drawings we see, that there were neither straps nor 

 springs in use at that period. From the same work 

 it would appear, that the coach in which Louis 

 XIV. made his public entry, was hung upon straps 

 without springs ; and there are also given several draw- 

 ings of carriages with springs. (L'Art de Menuisier, 

 Carrossier, par M. Roubo le Fils; See Description 

 des Arts et Metiers, fol. 1770, vol. x. p. 453.) In 

 1562, the Elector of Cologne had several carriages. 

 In 1594, the Margrave John Sigismund had, at War- 

 saw, 36 carriages, with six horses each, (Suite des Me- 

 moires pour servir a I' Hist, de Brandenburg, p. 63.) 

 where, the royal author adds, ' the common use of car- 

 riages is not older than the time of John Sigismund." 

 In The Triumph of Maximilian, a work executed 

 in the years 1516, 1517, and 1518, the curious rea- 

 der will find plates of various carriages or cars, some 

 -drawn by horses, some by stags, some by camels, 

 others impelled forward by means of different combi- 

 nations of toothed wheels, worked by men. Of one 

 of the most remarkable of them, we have given an 

 exact copy, in Plate CXXXI. ; and we are inclined 

 to think that the idea of the walking crane may have CXXXI. 

 been taken from this vehicle. 



Amongst other things described of the marriage 

 of the Emperor Ferdinand IJ., it is said by Count 

 Kevenhiller, that " the bride rode with her sisters 

 in a splendid carriage studded with gold, her maids 

 of honour in carriages hung with black satin, and the 

 rest of the ladies in neat leather carriages." 



