Curricle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A curricle was a smart light two wheeled "chariot" large enough for the driver and a passenger and— most unusual for a vehicle with a single axle—drawn by a carefully-matched pair. It was popular in the early 19th century: its Latinate name 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 liked the English-sounding term "carrick" for these 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.
In Northanger Abbey Henry Tilney drives a curricle: John Thorpe drives a gig, but buffoonishly praises it as "curricle-hung". Margaret Sullivan found that Jane Austen's assignment of vehicles to the two men was far from arbitrary (Sullivan 2000).
Curricles were notorious for the accidents their drivers suffered.
