John Cordrey - A Gentleman with His Pair of Bays Harnessed to a Curricle - Google Art Project

A curricle was a smart, light, two-wheeled

chaise A one-horse chaise A three-wheeled "Handchaise", Germany, around 1900, designed to be pushed by a person A chaise, sometimes called chay or shay, is a light two- or four-wheeled traveling or pleasure carriage for one or two people with a folding ...

or "chariot", large enough for the driver and a passenger and—most unusually for a vehicle with a single

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, beari ...

—usually drawn by a carefully matched pair of horses. It was popular in the early 19th century; its name—from the Latin ''curriculum'', meaning "running", "racecourse" or "chariot"—is the equivalent of a "runabout", and it was a rig suitable for a smart young man who liked to drive himself, at a canter. The French adopted the English-sounding term fr , carrick , label = none for such vehicles. The lightweight swept body with just the lightest

dashboard For business applications, see Dashboard (business). A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel (IP), or fascia) is a control panel set within the central console of a vehicle or small aircraft. Usually located directly ahead of the drive ...

hung with a pair of lamps was hung from a pair of outsized swan-neck

leaf spring A leaf spring is a simple form of spring commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. Originally called a ''laminated'' or ''carriage spring'', and sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring, elliptical spring, or cart spring, i ...

s at the rear. For a grand show in the

Bois de Boulogne The Bois de Boulogne (, "Boulogne woodland") is a large public park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. The land was ceded to the city of Paris by t ...

or along the seafront at

Honfleur Honfleur () is a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. The people that inhabit Honf ...

, two liveried mounted grooms might follow. In ''

Northanger Abbey ''Northanger Abbey'' () is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of Gothic novels written by Jane Austen. Austen was also influenced by Charlotte Lennox's '' The Female Quixote'' (1752). ''Northanger Abbey'' was completed in 1803, the first of ...

'' (published in 1817) Henry Tilney drives a curricle; John Thorpe drives a

gig Gig or GIG may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Gig'' (Circle Jerks album) (1992) * ''Gig'' (Northern Pikes album) (1993) * ''The Gig'', a 1985 film written and directed by Frank D. Gilroy * GIG, a character in ''Hot Wheels AcceleRacers'' ...

, but buffoonishly praises it as "curricle-hung". Margaret Sullivan found

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

's assignment of vehicles to the two men far from arbitrary. Curricles were notorious for the accidents their drivers suffered. Thus, in the 1999 Regency romance novel ''Miss Carlyle's Curricle'' by Karen Harbaugh, the heroine inherits the curricle in which her uncle died in a racing accident. The danger involved led to cheaper and safer phaetons and cabriolets replacing curricles.

References

{{reflist

External links

Gigs, Cabriolets and Curricles.
Jane Austen Centre Bath UK England. Carts Carriages sv:Karriol

See also

References

External links