An 1895 Curricle at the Shelburne Museum
A Gentleman, his bays harnessed to a curricle. 1806, oil by John Cordrey c. 1765-1825
Illustration of a Curricle

A curricle was a smart, light, two-wheeled chaise or "chariot", large enough for the driver and a passenger and—most unusually for a vehicle with a single axle—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"[1]—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 carrick for such vehicles. The lightweight swept body with just the lightest dashboard hung with a pair of lamps was hung from a pair of outsized swan-neck leaf springs at the rear. For a grand show in the Bois de Boulogne or along the seafront at Honfleur, two liveried mounted grooms might follow.[2]

In Northanger Abbey (published in 1817) Henry Tilney drives a curricle; John Thorpe drives a gig, but buffoonishly praises it as "curricle-hung". Margaret Sullivan found Jane Austen's assignment of vehicles to the two men far from arbitrary.[3]

Curricles were notorious for the accidents their drivers suffered.[4] Thus, in the 1999 Regency romance novel Miss Carlyle's Curricle by Karen Harbaugh,[5] the heroine inherits the curricle in which her uncle died in a racing accident.[6] The danger involved led to cheaper and safer phaetons and cabriolets replacing curricles.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "World Wide Words: Curriculum". World Wide Words.
  2. ^ Notes sur les voitures hippomobiles: Le Carrick ou curricle, à pompe. Archived 2006-02-17 at the Wayback Machine À Honfleur: N. Neffe, Gravure d'art contemporain. In French, illustrated.
  3. ^ Margaret C. Sullivan, "The curricle" 2000. Tilneys and Trap-doors: Keeping irony alive since 1999. Illustrated.
  4. ^ R v Pigott and Crampton, 1828. Macquarie Law: Decisions of the Superior Courts of New South Wales, 1788-1899. A child is run over by two gentlemen in a curricle.
  5. ^ Harbaugh, Karen Eriksen (10 July 2012) [1999]. Miss Carlyle's Curricle. Signet Regency romance. New York: Penguin (published 2012). ISBN 9781101567500. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  6. ^ "Miss Carlyle's Curricle by Karen Harbaugh". Archived from the original on November 18, 2007.
  7. ^ Prince-Sheldon, J., ed. (22 March 2021). British and Foreign Horses - A Comprehensive Guide to Equestrian Knowledge Including Breeds and Breeding, Health and Management. Read Books Ltd (published 2021). ISBN 9781528767309. Retrieved 12 August 2022. The mail phaeton as improved, and the cabriolet as perfected, killed the curricle. These, while nearly as expensive, were much less difficult to produce in perfection, and infinitely less dangerous.

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