Coach Driving - Carriages , livre ebook

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18 pages

English

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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

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Publié par	Read Books Ltd.
Date de parution	08 septembre 2016
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781473352605
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0350€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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COACH DRIVING
CARRIAGES
BY ALFRED E. T. WATSON
Contents
CHAPTER II. CARRIAGES
CHAPTER II. 1
CARRIAGES
B Y A LFRED E. T. W ATSON .
T HE thing which chiefly puzzled Charles Darwin in his researches and speculations with regard to the development of species was the evolution of the eye. He could not even guess plausibly how the eye was generated; and what perplexes the inquirer into the subject of the origin of carriages is the question when the wheel originally came into existence. When first horses were domesticated and pressed into the service of man, superseding, as there is reason to suppose, the use first of oxen and then of asses, the man doubtless put what he wanted to be carried on his horse s back, fastening it there as best he could. But some keen observer, as we must suppose, watching his horse thus burdened, hit on the idea that a more convenient method might be adopted, and the horse s strength better utilised. He had, in fact, evolved the earliest notion of the carriage.
His mode of procedure was to take a couple of poles and so fasten them round the horse s neck that they dragged on the ground behind his heels, and on these poles he placed, and in some way or other fastened so that it would not fall off, what he wanted to carry. We can, of course, only imagine dimly the sensation which was caused when the proud inventor first exhibited his carriage-for that this was the original carriage seems to be proved by the circumstances that a similar contrivance is still in use among the red men of America. For the sake of contrast let us step over a few thousands of years and glance from the earliest carriage to the latest.

The first carriage.
We are apt to consider these the days of marvellous inventions, but we cannot by any possibility realise the magnitude and brilliance of the idea of the first wheel. There is nothing to guide us even to about the century when by degrees some man of active mind first began to perceive that improvements in carriage-building-something more convenient and serviceable than these dragging poles, that is to say-were within the bounds of possibility. If the poles could be raised to the horizontal it would be something. Articles would not fall off; a man might sit comfortably and rest himself when he was tired of walking by the horse s side. Then some mighty genius in a flash of vivid imagination devised the wheel. His name, even his country, has been lost in the mist of ages, though it should rank on a level with the discoveries of gunpowder and of the electric telegraph. We can only speculate upon his proceedings when the splendid conception struck him, but it seems very likely that he cut down a tree, chopped two slices or circles of wood from the trunk, and-probably sat down overwhelmed by the evident fact that there was still a vast deal to be done; for how were his round pieces of wood to be so fastened that they would turn? If the reader cares to amuse himself by following out these fancies, he may speculate as to whether the early inventor strove to work out the problem for himself, or whether he called his friends into consultation-in what strange and forgotten language did they discuss the question of wheels and how to make them turn?-showed them his round sections of tree, and explained the difficulties which had to be solved. Imagine a meeting of the wise men bent on the arduous task of discovering the first crude suggestion of the axle-tree! We cannot ask the artists to draw the picture, for they would not know whether to clothe the group in the skins of wild beasts or in some species of robe, and then again the sort of tree which was thus cut down would be only guesswork, as no one can tell in what clime the discussion took place.

1889.
All that can be ascertained is that the wheel must have been invented thousands of years before the Christian era, for the reason that when the chariot first makes its appearance in the Egyptian monuments it is so complete that there can be no doubt as to wheeled vehicles having been long in use, not perhaps by the monument-building Egyptians themselves, but by their conquerors the Hyksos and the people whence the Shepherd Kings came. From the first appearance of the chariot we find many representations of wheeled vehicles upon the monuments of Egypt, of Asia Minor, of Greece, and of Rome. These early chariots were primarily used for war, though it is natural to assume that considerable progress in driving and familiarity with wheeled vehicles must have been made before men would risk their lives in battle on anything but their own legs. There is reason to suppose, however, that chariots were used for journeys and for the ordinary purposes for which carriages are employed, and doubtless at a very early period of their existence for races. The same spirit which in this year of grace draws vast crowds to Epsom and Ascot doubtless moved men five thousand years and more ago, though whether in the chariot races spectators backed their fancies, tried to pick out the best team of two, four, or more horses, as the case might be, and to judge whether the superiority of one champion s driving would enable him to beat a somewhat better chariot driven by a notoriously less expert warrior, lands us again in the region of speculation.
The earliest wheeled vehicles-chariots- of which traces exist on the monuments to which reference has been made, were drawn by two horses, and here, again, it is obvious that there must have been a lapse of time during which events happened of which there is no record; for it seems only natural to suppose that men must for a long period have driven one horse before somebody hit on the notion of a pair, though when once the pair was started the natural vanity of man and his desire to display his wealth and consequence rather, perhaps, than consideration as to the work horses were required to do, length of their journeys, the weight they had to draw, would suggest teams of four, six, eight, and even a greater number. Another discovery, which no doubt created a stir at the time, was the four-wheeled carriage-in all probability the roughest possible form of waggon. Bible history may here be drawn upon. In the 41st chapter of Genesis, which is dated 1715 B.C ., we read that Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck. And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had. Some eight years later Pharaoh sent for Jacob. Joseph was bidden to say to his brethren, Take you waggons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. Joseph gave them waggons accordingly, and we can only suppose that waggons were known in Canaan, for when Jacob saw them he perfectly understood what they were and why they had been sent.
We thus have the record of the waggon nearly 2,000 years B.C . Four-wheeled waggons were used by the Greeks and by the Romans, but the two-wheeled chariot was always the favourite vehicle of the ancients for war or for pomp, perhaps because there was more elegance about it, and it was much speedier. The poets and historians of old took delight in describing the glories of a chariot adorned with ivory, with gold and silver, and with precious stones. The discomforts of a journey in any of the early vehicles can, however, be imagined when one remembers that carriage springs are of comparatively modern invention, and that even in cities of the first consequence the art of road-making was in its infancy.

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