A dogcart (also dog-cart or dog cart) is a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle pulled by a single horse in shafts, or driven tandem. With seating for four, it was designed for sporting shooters and their gun dogs, with a louvred box under the driver's seat to contain dogs. It was developed in the early 1800s to afford more seating than the gig, which seats only two. Seating is two back-to-back crosswise seats, an arrangement called dos-à-dos from French. There is a hinged tailboard which lowers slightly and, supported by chains, acts as a footrest for the rear-facing passengers. Some dogcarts had a mechanism to slide the entire body forward or rearward along the shafts to help balance the weight for the horse. [1] [2]
Other names for specific or regional designs of dogcarts include Battlesden cart, Bent panel cart, Bounder, Country cart, Essex trap, Farmer's dogcart, Going-to-cover cart, High dogcart, Hurdle cart, Leamington cart, Malvern cart, Moray car, Newport Pagnell cart, Norfolk cart, Norfolk shooting cart, Nottingham cart, Oxford bounder, Oxford dogcart, Pony dogcart, Ralli dogcart, Sliding bodied dogcart, Surrey cart, Tandem cart, To-cart, Whitechapel cart, Worcester cart, and Worthing cart. [1]
A dogcart phaeton is a four-wheeled vehicle pulled by a single horse in shafts, or a pair of horses with a carriage pole. The dogcart phaeton seats four people and is arranged as two back-to-back crosswise seats, called dos-à-dos, with two people facing forward and two others facing the rear. Though the word cart generally means a two-wheeled vehicle, the name dogcart stuck when the body style was mounted on four-wheeled phaeton undercarriages. [1] [2]
Other names for specific or regional designs of four-wheel dogcarts include Alexandra dogcart, Continental dogcart, Eridge car, Four-wheeled Ralli car, French Derby cart, Malvern dogcart, Martin's dogcart, and Village phaeton. [1]
Frequent references to dog-carts are made by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his writings about fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, [3] and by many other Victorian writers, as they were a common sight in that era.
In Os Maias, the protagonist, Carlos, makes use of a dogcart "in great style" to move around Lisbon.
A cart or dray is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs.
A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping or, on those made in recent centuries, steel springs. Two-wheeled carriages are usually owner-driven.
Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. Tandem can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects working together, not necessarily in line.
A phaeton was a form of sporty open carriage popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Drawn by one or two horses, a phaeton typically featured a minimal very lightly sprung body atop four extravagantly large wheels. With open seating, it was both fast and dangerous, giving rise to its name, drawn from the mythical Phaëthon, son of Helios, who nearly set the Earth on fire while attempting to drive the chariot of the Sun.
Carting is a dog sport or activity in which a dog pulls a dogcart filled with supplies, such as farm goods, camping equipment, groceries or firewood, but sometimes pulling people. Carting as a sport is also known as dryland mushing and is practiced all around the world, often to keep winter sled dogs in competition form during the off-season.
A gig is a light, two-wheeled open carriage with large wheels, a forward facing seat, and shafts for a single horse. The gig's body is constructed above the shafts, and it is entered from step-irons hanging from the shaft in front of the wheels. Gigs are enclosed at the back, and have luggage space under the cross-seat. Early gigs were crude and unsprung; later gigs were elegant for town driving and were constructed with springs. The term "gig" is short for "whirligig".
A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by automobiles and other forms of self-propelled transport but are still in use today.
A sprung cart was a light, one-horse, two-wheeled vehicle with road springs, for the carriage of passengers on informal occasions. Its name varied according to the body mounted on it.
A lorry or lorrie was a low flat horse-drawn vehicle with no sides, related to the trolley and dray.
A tonga or tanga is a two-wheeled cart drawn by a single horse. It is used for transportation in the Indian subcontinent. There is a canopy over the body, one seat faces forward for the driver and one passenger, and one seat faces the rear for a second passenger. Some space is available for baggage below the carriage, between the wheels. This space is often used to carry hay for the horses.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to transport:
In coachbuilding, a landau is a four-wheeled carriage with a roof that can be let down. It was a luxury carriage. The low shell of the landau provides maximal visibility of the occupants and their clothing, a feature that makes a landau still a popular choice for Lord Mayors in the United Kingdom on ceremonial occasions.
Driving, when applied to horses, ponies, mules, or donkeys, is a broad term for hitching equines to a wagon, carriage, cart, sleigh, or other horse-drawn vehicle by means of a harness and working them in this way. It encompasses a wide range of activities from pleasure driving, to harness racing, to farm work, horse shows, and even international combined driving.
A droshky or drosky is a term used for a four-wheeled open carriage used especially in Russia. The vehicle has a long bench on which the driver or passengers sit as if on a saddle, either astride or sideways. From droga, the pole that connects the front and rear axles.
A trap, pony trap or horse trap is a light, often sporty, two-wheeled or sometimes four-wheeled horse- or pony-drawn carriage, usually accommodating two to four persons in various seating arrangements, such as face-to-face or back-to-back. In the eighteenth century, the first carriage to be called a trap was a gig with a hinged trap door, under which was a place to carry a dog. In late nineteenth century USA, four-wheeled dog carts with convertible seats also started to become known as traps.
A vis-à-vis is a carriage in which the passengers sit face to face with the front passengers facing rearward and the rear passengers facing forward. The term comes from the French vis-à-vis, meaning face to face.
An araba is a carriage drawn by horses or oxen, used in Turkey and neighboring countries in the 18th and 19th centuries, with crosswise seating and usually with a canopy top to protect occupants from the sun and afford privacy. It is usually heavy and built without springs; when it has springs it is called yaylı, shorter form of "yaylı araba" or "araba with springs".
A Ralli car is a traditional type of horse-drawn cart, named after the Ralli family. The vehicle was commonly used as a general run-around for families.
A governess cart is a small two-wheeled horse-drawn cart. Their distinguishing feature is a small tub body, with two opposed inward-facing seats. They could seat four, although there was little room for four large adults. The driver sat sideways on one of these seats. The centre rear of the body was lowered, or else had a small hinged door, and there was a step beneath. The wheels were of moderate size, always fitted with mudguards, and usually carried on elliptical springs. The axle was either straight or dropped, giving a low, stable, centre of gravity.
Clément-Panhard is an automobile designed in 1898 by Arthur Constantin Krebs, manager of Panhard & Levassor co, from his 1896 patent of a car fitted with an electromagnetic gearbox, whose licence was acquired by Émile Levassor.