40 DRIVING. 



All these carriages, however, it will have been perceived, 

 had what those for whom this book was designed will regard as 

 one great drawback. The master needed a coachman. He 

 could not drive himself ; at least, it was not intended that he 

 should do so. Riding in carriages has been looked on at 

 various times as contemptibly effeminate; if a man drove his 

 own horse it was quite a different affair, and the taste for 

 driving was now beginning to spread. The phaeton had, in fact, 

 already come into vogue, though, so far as can be ascertained 

 in the early carriage of this class, there was no hind seat. The 

 body of the vehicle was placed high above, and exactly over the 

 front wheels, and they were attached to the hind wheels, which 

 were of considerable height, by a perch of wood strengthened 

 by plates of iron. There was a hood, which could be raised 

 or lowered after the existing fashion. The pony phaeton, on 

 the other hand, had the body over the hind wheels. In country 

 places, carriages very much like what was probably the earliest 

 pony phaeton may still be seen. With the body lowered and 

 seats in front, this was developed into a trap that is in very 

 general use. 



A once highly popular carriage was the curricle. It is said 

 to have been of Italian origin, and found its way to England 

 early in the present century, to become extremely popular, if 

 popular be the correct term to employ in describing a vehicle 

 which was very luxurious, inasmuch as it was chiefly a show 

 carriage and, in spite of its lightness, was drawn by a pair of 

 horses. The curricle was a two-wheeled carriage with a hood, 

 and the only two-wheeled vehicle used with two horses abreast. 

 In his ' English Pleasure Carriages,' Mr. W. B. Adams expresses 

 an opinion that 



The shape of the body is extremely unsightly, the hinder curve and 

 the sword-case are positively ugly, the elbow and head are ungrace- 

 fully formal, and the crooked front line and dashing iron in the 

 worst possible taste. . . . The mode of attaching the horse is pre- 

 cisely that of the chariot car, only more elegant. A pole is fixed to 

 the square frame and is suspended from a bright steel bar, resting in 



