Pony Phaetons. 537 



THE STANHOPE PHAETON. 



The stanhope phaeton, which was originally contrived by placing the body of a stanhope 

 gig on four wheels, with a boot behind for a servant, is an improvement on the old heavy 

 cabriolet phaeton, being lighter, and easily drawn by one small blood-horse. It has also the 

 advantage of being cheap. For those who like to drive themselves it is a pleasant carriage, 

 although it does not give so commanding a seat as the mail phaeton, or so much accommodation 

 as the wagonette. It is adapted for either one or a pair of light horses, and is easily made 

 to come within the four-hundredweight limit of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's 1870 Budget. 

 The stanhope has been varied in two directions ; in its original shape it was an open carriage, 

 like the gig. In the first instance it was increased in weight by the addition of a fixed or 

 movable head, and sometimes by being enlarged in width, without the perch or heavy 

 under-carriage, to the dimensions of the pair-horse double-groomed mail phaeton. In the 

 other and later direction it has been cut down in size, the hind scat narrowed so as only to 

 hold one person, hence called from its shape a T-cart — a name adopted by the Guardsman 

 who invented it; an example of that "pride that apes humility." 



THE FOUR-WHEELED VIS-A-VIS PONY PHAETON. 



One more four-wheeled type of carriage, equally in demand in town and country — an 

 essentially family carriage — is the pony phaeton, in which perhaps as much amusement and 

 happiness is packed as in the most costly and gorgeous vehicles (not excepting the Court 

 chariot of a lady who has so risen in the world as to be presented at Court, to the envy and 

 amazement of the manufacturing town from which her husband sprung ; or the City sheriff 

 or provincial mayor on his way to receive — the result of a fortunate fluke — the honour of 

 knighthood, and return Sir Peter or Sir John), whether of clothes-basket shape, of wicker 

 or of iron wire, or of unpainted wood, low to the ground, drawn by a small, cheap, docile 

 animal, for the express benefit of mamma, or the nursery governess, or the nurse and half a 

 dozen children, either with or without the assistance of the gardener or the gardener's boy 

 as driver. 



The first light pony phaetons, invented at Croydon, were of wicker-work — or, as it is sometimes 

 called, "osier" — which had the advantage of being very light and very low-priced, if not cheap. 

 For a time they were quite the fashion ; but of late years a number of materials have been 

 used for low-priced carriages which are more durable, and more easy to clean and keep clean, 

 than osier. There is a large and legitimate demand for low-priced carriages by classes who 

 either like an occasional change of form and fashion, or who are indifferent to fine finish, for 

 country use. The most numerous of these want a handy conveyance, and find that it suits 

 their income better to pay ^25 than £^0. To supply this want during the twenty years that 

 followed the International Exhibition of 185 1 there sprung up in the metropolis, and in 

 almost every market-town of England, a host of builders prepared to meet every variety of 

 taste in cheap family and sporting vehicles. Fine flatted paint and varnish were superseded 

 by plain paint, or wood merely varnished over it natural colour; iron wire superseded costly 

 and little durable cane-work, and even wicker-work, was imitated. For morocco leather 

 lining American cloth was substituted ; and stained wooden splashboards took the place 

 of patent leather. In a word, supply followed, and to this hour continues to follow, demand. 

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