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Dedication
The articles posted here are dedicated to the memory of Georgette Heyer in gratitude for the many hours of enjoyment her books have given me. She was an artist with words whose meticulously researched novels never fail to transport me to the Georgian or Regency eras.
© 2008 – 2019
Kathryn Kane, Kalligraph
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Category Archives: Transportation
Regency Bicentennial: The First Ride on the Laufmaschine
Two hundred years ago, this coming Monday, Karl von Drais, the man who invented the proto-type of the bicycle, took his first ride on his new invention. He rode his wooden, two-wheeled vehicle a distance of about five miles, out … Continue reading
Posted in Transportation
Tagged Georgette Heyer, Horses, Regency, Regency Bicentennial, Travel, Vehicles
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Regency Bicentennial: Puffing Billy Hits the Rails
Though the exact date is unknown, two hundred years ago, the oldest extant steam locomotive had been completed and was undergoing its first tests. There had been other steam locomotives built in England before Puffing Billy, but none of them … Continue reading
Posted in Transportation
Tagged Horses, Regency, Regency Bicentennial, Technology, Travel, Vehicles
12 Comments
The Acquisition and Handling of a Matched Team
Last week, I discussed the main criteria which were used during the Regency to match a pair of carriage or coach horses. But as with coat color being only the first consideration in matching a team, knowing the criteria which … Continue reading
Matching a Team — Color is Only the Beginning
Recently, I wrote a pair of articles about Cleveland Bays and Yorkshire Coach Horses. Though a single horse of either of these breeds might be hitched to a small carriage, or even ridden under saddle, they were most often harnessed … Continue reading
Regency Roof Rack: The Imperial
Did you think all those roof racks and cargo boxes that are mounted on all those car roofs every year for summer vacation road trips are an invention of the twentieth century? Then you will be quite surprised to learn … Continue reading
Dandy Chargers Ride — The 2013 Season
One of my favorite signs of Spring is the arrival in my email box of the Dandy Chargers annual schedule of appearances. For those of you who may not know, the Dandy Chargers are a group of gentlemen, and ladies, … Continue reading
Yorkshire Coach Horse: The Regency Aston Martin
Last week, the topic of discussion was the great English coaching horse breed, the Cleveland Bay. This week will be dicussed the taller, lighter, faster cousin of the Cleveland Bay, the Yorkshire Coach horse. More a Cleveland Bay hybrid than … Continue reading
Cleveland Bay: The Bentley of Coach Horses
The Cleveland Bay is the oldest of all the indigenous British horse breeds. Clevelands are large, powerful, and elegant, and they are always bay in color. Though they were considered to be the very best coach horses during the Regency, … Continue reading
The Dandy Chargers — or — The Velocipede Lives!
Over the past couple of weeks I have had communication via email and comments to my article, Of Velocipedes and Draisiennes — The Fall, with Mr. Roger Street. Mr. Street, it turns out, is not only a scholar of the … Continue reading
From Paris to Strathfield Saye: Copenhagen as a Civilian
In my previous installment of the story of Copenhagen’s life, I wrote about the chestnut stallion’s service during the Waterloo campaign. He had just retired for the night in the stable of the little inn at Waterloo, his rider to … Continue reading
Bloody Sunday: Copenhagen and the Waterloo Campaign
I rode him throughout the rest of the war, and mounted no other horse at Waterloo. There may have been may faster horses, no doubt many handsomer, but for bottom and endurance I never saw his fellow. The Duke of … Continue reading
From Denmark to Belgium: Copenhagen — Wellington’s Great Warhorse
And chick magnet! Really! After his military exploits became public, many ladies developed a great fondness for the Duke of Wellington’s favorite warhorse, Copenhagen. And the Duke, who much enjoyed the company of ladies, was perfectly happy to let … Continue reading
The English "Blood" Horse
All of us who read Regency novels have encountered the phrase "blood horse" now and again. But, what, precisely, does that phrase mean, and when and how did it enter the English lexicon? More importantly for our purposes, was it … Continue reading
Coaching Tokens or Half-Pennies
We have all received mailings, either via snail-mail or email, which include a "check" or coupon worth a certain amount for use at a restaurant or hotel as an inducement for our patronage. Our Regency ancestors received similar specialized currency, … Continue reading
Royal Hanoverian Creams
By the name, one can be excused for thinking that a Royal Hanoverian Cream might be a rich, frothy, luscious dessert. But in actual fact, they were a breed of horse, now extinct, who pulled the royal carriages for many … Continue reading
The Regency Side-Saddle — A Lady’s Death-Trap?
Perhaps not exactly a death-trap, but the side-saddles in use during the Regency were nowhere near as safe as the side-saddles now ridden by modern-day equestriennes. All of those intrepid heroines of Regency romance novels who have ridden their horses … Continue reading
Of Velocipedes and Draisiennes — The Fall
Last week I wrote about the rapid rise of the craze for the velocipede in Regency England. Introduced first in London, early in 1819, by the enterprising coachmaker, Denis Johnson, the velocipede was all the rage by the early spring … Continue reading
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