Coach (carriage)

A coach is a large closed four-wheeled passenger-carrying vehicle or carriage usually drawn by two or more horses usually controlled by a coachman, a postilion, or occasionally both. A coach has doors in its sides and a front and a back seat inside. The driver has a seat in front raised up high to give good vision. It is often called a box, box seat or coach box. The word coach came into use in the 15th century and spread across Europe. There are a number of types of coaches depending on how the vehicle is to be used. In India it is called a Rath or रथ. Special breeds of horses, such as the now-extinct Yorkshire Coach Horse, were developed to pull the heavy coaches.

Catherine II's carved, painted and gilded Coronation Coach (Hermitage Museum)

History
See also: Carriage

In the early 14th century England, coaches would still have been extremely rare, there is unlikely to be more than a dozen even and still extremely costly even until the end of the century. These coaches would have four six-spoke six-foot high wheels that were linked by greased axles under the body of coach, and they had no suspension. The chassis was made from oak beam and the barrel shaped roof was covered in brightly painted leather or cloth. The interior would include seats, beds, cushions, tapestries and even rugs. They would be pulled by four to five horses.[1]

Kocs was the Hungarian post town in the 15th century onwards, which gave its name to a fast light vehicle, which later spread across Europe. Therefore, the English word coach, the Spanish and Portuguese coche, the German Kutsche, and the Slovak koč and Czech kočár all probably derive from the Hungarian word "kocsi", literally meaning "of Kocs".[2][3]

One source says that in, “1564, Boonen, a Dutchman, became the Queen’s coachman, and was the first that brought the use of coaches into England.”[4] Another source says it was not until 1580, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, that coaches were introduced to England from France by Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel.[5] These were designed to be pulled by a pair of horses. In 1619 George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham introduced the coach drawn by six horses.[6]

A coach with four horses is a coach-and-four.[7] A coach together with the horses, harness and attendants is a turnout.[8]

The bodies of early coaches were hung on leather straps. In the eighteenth century steel springs were also used in suspension systems. An advertisement in the Edinburgh Courant for 1754 reads:

The Edinburgh stage-coach, for the better accommodation of passengers, will be altered to a new genteel two-end glass coach-machine, hung on steel springs, exceedingly light and easy...

Strap suspensions persisted, however; the 19th century American Concord coaches used leather straps exactly as the first Berline from 1660 did.

A coach might have a built-in compartment called a boot, used originally as a seat for the coachman and later for storage. A luggage case for the top of a coach was called an imperial; the top, roof or second-story compartment of a coach was also known as an imperial.[9] The front and rear axles were connected by a main shaft called the perch or reach.[10] A crossbar known as a splinter bar supported the springs.

In the 19th century the name coach was used for U.S. railway carriages,[11] and in the 20th century to motor coaches.

See John Taylor (poet) for a very adverse opinion of the arrival of horse drawn coaches in England.

Types

There are a number of coach types, including but not limited to:

Coaches for public hire or transport
  • Funeral coach: not a coach but a U.S. name for a hearse, a wagon adapted to carry a coffin. Can also be used to describe a coach used by mourners following a Hearse
  • Hackney coach a hired coach
  • Stagecoach: heavy, usually four-in-hand, closed; built to carry passengers on scheduled long-distance services changing exhausted horses at stage stations, carrying as many as twenty passengers and goods
    • Mail coach or post coach: same as a stagecoach, used for carrying mail but it carries premium-fare passengers.
    • Concord coach: as stagecoach — designed with its body swung on leather thorough-braces was to help cope with bad roads.
    • Stage wagon or mud wagon: (U.S.) lighter and smaller than a stagecoach, flat sides, simpler joinery
  • Tally-ho, a fast stage coach

Miscellany
A Portuguese Royal Coach driver's uniform
Park Drag Paris 1906

The business of a coachman, like the pilot of an aircraft, was to expertly direct and take all responsibility for a coach or carriage and its horses, their stabling, feeding and maintenance and the associated staff. He was also called a jarvey or jarvie, especially in Ireland.

If he drove dangerously fast or recklessly he was a jehu (from Jehu, king of Israel, who was noted for his furious attacks in a chariot (2 Kings 9:20), or a Phaeton (from Greek Phaethon, son of Helios, who attempted to drive the chariot of the sun but managed to set the earth on fire).

A postilion or postillion sometimes rode as a guide on the near horse of a pair or of one of the pairs attached to a coach, especially when there was no coachman. A guard on a horse-drawn coach was called a shooter.

Traveling by coach, or pleasure driving in a coach, as in a tally-ho, was called coaching. In driving a coach, the coachman used a coachwhip, usually provided with a long lash. Experienced coachmen never used the lash on their horses. They used the whip to flick the ear of the leader to give them the office to move on, or cracked it next to their heads to request increased speed.

  • box coat: a heavy overcoat with or without shoulder capes used by coachmen (riding on the box seat) exposed to all kinds of weather.[12]
  • hammercloth: ornamented and often fringed was hung over the coachman's seat, especially on a ceremonial coach.[13]
  • cockhorse: An extra horse led behind a coach to be hitched when passing over steep or difficult terrain.
  • stable was a building to shelter horses usually close to the owner's house. Staff accommodation would be close often within the same building.
  • coach house was a special building for sheltering a coach or coaches but coaches were more often kept within the stable building.
  • coaching inn or coaching house provided accommodation for travellers and usually provided a change of horses and offered stabling.
  • coach dog or carriage dog was trained to run in attendance on a coach particularly Dalmatians.

Coach horses

A coach horse or coacher bred for drawing a coach is typically heavier and of more compact build than a saddle horse and exhibits good style and action.[14] Breeds include:

  • Breton: heavy, French, for draft or meat
  • German coach: large, rather coarse, heavy draft horse or harness horse; bay, brown or black in color
  • Hanoverian: developed by crossing heavy cold-blooded German horses with Thoroughbreds
  • Holstein: German, heavyweight, for riding and dressage, initially a carriage horse; bay, black or brown. Called also Holsteiner, Warmblut, Warmblood.
  • Yorkshire Coach Horse: large, strong, bay or brown; dark legs, mane and tail; belongs to an English breed derived largely from the Cleveland Bay

See also

References
  1. Mortimer, Ian (2009). The time traveller's guide to medieval England : a handbook for visitors to the fourteenth century. London: Vintage. pp. 133–134. ISBN 978-1-84595-099-6.
  2. "coach". CollinsDictionary.com. HarperCollins. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
  3. "coach". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  4. The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol IV (1848 ed.). London: Charles Knight. p. 675.
  5. Percy, S.; Percy, R. (1823). The Percy Anecdotes. T. Boys. p. 54. Retrieved 2014-10-12.
  6. The Book of Days by robert Chambers
  7. Definition of coach-and-four by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia. Free access.
  8. Turn out – Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
  9. Definition of imperial by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia. Free access.
  10. Thomas A Kinney, The Carriage Trade: Making Horse-Drawn Vehicles in America Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2004
  11. Oxford English Dictionary
  12. Box Coat. Probert Encyclopaedia.
  13. Hammercloth in Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2000).
  14. Detailed information about specific breeds of horses: Carriage Horses in Britain. Georgian Index.
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