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In Other Words

The Vehicles in "Ten Things I Hate About the Duke"

December 6, 2020 Loretta Chase

James Pollard, Trafalgar Square (this is undated, but the clothing tells me it’s 1830s).

Until the mass production of automobiles, over a century ago, only well-off people could afford to own their own vehicles. In London, the vast majority of the populace walked. Even for the well-to-do, walking could be a more efficient way of getting from place to place, given congested streets and frequent accidents.

In Town, public transportation comprised omnibuses, hackney coaches, and hackney cabs. For longer distances, one might hire a post chaise—a more expensive proposition. In any event, as Cassandra Pomfret points out, a bill curtailing public transport on Sundays would have a severe impact on those who supplied the vehicles or drove them for a living as well as the people who depended on them for transportation.

In Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, I mention hackney cabs and coaches. These images will show you the difference, and save me a thousand words. Hackney coaches were usually secondhand vehicles, repurposed as public conveyances. The cabs were made to a design. For more on this subject, please see my blog post Hackney Cabs & Hackney Coaches.

View fullsize Hackney Cabriolet-Wm Heath 1829-09 LL.jpg
View fullsize Hackney cabriolet-Misfortune of having short legs-Wm Heath 1830-01-25.jpg
View fullsize Hackney-Last Cab Driver, Cruikshank 1835-copy_edited-1.jpg
View fullsize Pyne-Waterman to a coach stand-copy_edited-1.jpg
View fullsize Hackney coach about 1800-copy_edited-1.jpg

Post chaises could range from a one-horse, two passenger vehicle, to a multi-horse chaise, like the one Ashmont, Morris, and Ashmont’s valet use for the return trip to London. A post chaise wasn’t driven by a coachman but by one or two postilions, as the wonderful scale model from the Science Museum Group so clearly shows.

View fullsize Post Chaise-copy-copy.jpg
View fullsize Post Chaise scale model science museum group-copy.jpg
View fullsize The Runaway Coach, ca. 1791-Rowlandson-ycba.jpg

Then there’s private transport, which, as Miss Pomfret also points out, the Sabbath bill would affect not in the least. This category includes a number of different vehicles, some owner-driven— like Miss Pomfret’s demi-mail phaeton and Ashmont’s cabriolet—and others driven by a coachman, like Lady Charles’s landau and Lady deGriffith’s barouche. As you study these illustrations, please bear in mind that these vehicles did not come off an assembly line but were made to order, and would not all be exactly the same.

View fullsize 1820-01 Barouche-Ackermann-Phila-IA.jpg
View fullsize Demi-Mail Phaeton 1820-Sci Mus Group - ed.jpg
View fullsize Cabriolet Horse 1826 Alken-copy.jpg
View fullsize Cabriolet-William Massey-Stanley driving his Cabriolet in Hyde Park, 1833-ycba-copy.jpg
View fullsize Landau ca 1820 02-copy.jpg
View fullsize Landau ca 1820-copy.jpg

 If you lived in the time of the story, which vehicle would you want to drive about in?

In Inspiration Tags "Ten Things I Hate About the Duke", history, historical illustrations, Difficult Dukes, London, transportation
← Those Cruikshank Prints In "Ten Things I Hate About You": 'The Blue Devils'The Green Man Inn and the Cattle Pound of Putney Heath →

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