Travelling Post-Chaise

Description

Summary

A travelling chariot was designed to be driven by postilions or post-boys. The carriage was directed by one or more postilions – men riding the horses pulling the carriage – rather than by a coachman sitting on a coach box which would obscure the travellers’ view. The postilions usually rode the horses on the left or near side. The pair of horses nearest the carriage was called the wheelers and the pair in front was called the leaders. The post system enabled people to travel quickly by refreshing horses at stages along the way. A traveller could hire horses and post-boys at a posting house to convey their carriage to the next posting house. This was a stage – usually eight to ten miles long. At the end of the stage, the traveller paid off the post-boys who stayed with the horses until they were hired by someone travelling in the opposite direction, back to the inn where they started. An ostler at the second posting inn would harness a fresh team of horses to the carriage accompanied by a new set of post-boys, which would take the traveller on the second stage of their journey. It was possible to hire a carriage as well as horses and these public travelling chariots were called post-chaises and were often painted yellow.