Fly (carriage)

In the field of transport a fly is, by definition, a vehicle that moves quickly. Examples include a light horse-drawn public passenger vehicle or delivery wagon or a light, covered, vehicle hired from a livery stable (such as a single-horse pleasure carriage or a hansom cab). ^{[1] [2] [3]}

• Examples of flys
• 
  A Pickfords Fly
• 
  Passengers board the Kendal Fly - after Thomas Rowlandson, 1816
• 
  Flying ambulance 1790 (model) for the fast transport of wounded soldiers from battlefield to hospital

See also

• Carriage
• Horse-drawn vehicle

References

1. "IIb. Something that flies, in various senses." Oxford English Dictionary, online accessed 31 March 2018.
2. Mayhew, Henry & Tuckniss, William (1861). London Labour and the London Poor: A Cyclopœdia of the Condition and Earnings of Those that Will Work, Those that Cannot Work, and Those that Will Not Work, Volume 3, Griffin, Bohn, and Company. p. 359
3. Chambers, Montaqu (Editor 1837). Law Journal Reports for the Year 1837: Comprising reports of cases in the courts of Equity and Bankruptcy, Kings Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer of Chamber, from Michaelmas Term 1836, to Trinity Term 1837 both inclusive, E. B. Ince, 5, Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London. p. 120

Reference to a fly, on page 70 of the way of all flesh by Samuel Butler circa 1884, makes clear that it is a lightweight, nimble and speedy horse Tron vehicle, in line with common current usage of to fly or to flee referring to its Speed when compared to comparable contemporary vehicles. Second paragraph reads as follows. “ a few days afterwards, the writer of the above letter made his appearance in a fly, which had brought him from Gildenham to Battersby. There was Lesueur, the cook, on the box with the driver,, and as many hampers, as the fly could carry, were disposed upon the roof and elsewhere.” From this brief description, one gets the essential sense of this closed carriage called a fly