English Pleasure Carriages: Their Origin, History, Varieties, Materials, Construction, Defects, Improvements, and Capabilities: with an Analysis of the Construction of Common Roads and Railroads, and the Public Vehicles Used on Them; Together with Descriptions of New Inventions ... |
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Common terms and phrases
action adapted advantage amongst Argand lamp ash trees axle axle-tree Barouche bear beneath body bolted Britzschka Cabriolet called carriage builders centre chariot circular coach colour common roads concussion considerable construction contrived convenience covered Curricle curved defects driving durability elastic elliptic springs Equirotal expense felloes fore wheels four-wheeled frame framework friction front gravity greater hammer-cloth heavy hind spring hoop horizontal horses improvement inches inclined plane increased invention iron iron-work lamp Landaulet leather leathern braces lever light locomotion Makers material means mechanical advantage metal mode morocco motion nave neral ordinary ornamental paint passengers patent perch Phaeton placed plates pleasure carriages portion purpose railroads rails riage roasting jack round screw seat shafts side side springs skill spokes steam straight sufficient surface suspended taste Tilbury timber tion travelling turn two-wheeled under-springs unsightly vehicle waggons weight wheel carriages wood workmen wrought iron
Popular passages
Page 43 - Elisabeth, for she had been seven years a Queen before she had any coach ; since when, they have increased, with a mischief, and ruined all the best house-keeping, to the undoing of the watermen, by the multitudes of hackney or hired coaches : But they never swarmed so thick to pester the streets, as they do now, till the year 1605, and then was the gunpowder treason hatched, and at that time did the coaches breed and multiply.
Page 31 - It shall be covered with velvet red, And cloths of fine gold all about your head, With damask white and azure blue, Well diapered with lilies new. Your pommels shall be ended with gold, Your chains enamelled many a fold, Your mantle of rich degree, Purple pall and ermine free.
Page 162 - Having been induced, during the last ten years, to visit a considerable number of workshops and factories, both in England and on the Continent, for the purpose of endeavouring to make myself acquainted with the various resources of mechanical art, I was insensibly led to apply to them those principles of generalization to which my other pursuits had naturally given rise.
Page 240 - ... yet with abundant fresh air, and with nearly as much privacy as a close carriage if the curtains be drawn in front. It can go in and out of places where a two-horse carriage with four wheels cannot turn...
Page 50 - The song being ended, a concert of instrumental music, after the French composition, being heard a while, the curtains are suddenly open'd, and in the ROSTRAS appear sitting a PARISIAN and a LONDONER, in the livery robes of both cities, who declaim concerning the pre-eminence of PARIS and LONDON.
Page 48 - ... the boote ; and if you note, they are carried back to back, like people surprised by pyrats, to be tyed in that miserable manner and thrown overboard into the sea. Moreover it makes people imitate...
Page 51 - I have now left your houses, and am passing through your streets, but not in a coach, for they are uneasily hung, and so narrow, that I took them for sedans upon wheels. Nor is it safe for a stranger to use them till the quarrel be decided, whether six of your nobles, sitting together, shall stop and give way to as many barrels of beer.
Page 45 - Towards the end of the sixteenth century, John of Finland, on his return from England, among other articles of luxury, brought with him to Sweden the first coach. + Before that period, the greatest lords in Sweden, when they travelled by land, carried their wives with them on horseback. The princesses even travelled in that manner, and, when it rained, took with them a mantle of wax-cloth.
Page 38 - In the imperial coaches no great magnificence was to be seen. They were covered over with red cloth and black nails. The harness was black, and in the whole work there was no gold. The panels were of glass, and on this account they were called the imperial glass coaches. On festivals the harness was ornamented with red silk fringes. The imperial coaches were distinguished only by their having leather traces ; but the ladies in the imperial suite were obliged to be contented with carriages the traces...
Page 54 - What the latter were, may be imagined from the fact, that when Charles III. of Spain visited England, and Prince George of Denmark went out to meet him, both princes were so impeded by the badness of the roads, that their carriages were obliged to be borne on the shoulders of the peasantry, and they were six hours in performing the last nine miles of their journey ! Abroad, little progress seems to have been made.