Here the all but preternatural patience of metablogian aficionados is solicited as Dr Metablog quotes directly from an ancient (April, '07) posting on sex and the horsedrawn vehicle -- the R-rated entirety of which can be found here:
"Regular readers of this blague are well aware that I have repeatedly indulged my bemusement with the names of extinct or obsolescent horsedrawn conveyances. My point is that modern readers, who know precisely what is signified -- in design, in metal, rubber and plastic and other constituents, and especially in social value -- by such words as Jeep, Jaguar, Jetta, and jalopy, know zero zilch zip about "fly," "trap," "landau," "chaise," "phaeton," "cabriolet," "sulky," "surrey," "curricle," "gig," "hansom," "buggy," "four-wheeler," "spring-van," "berlin," "barouche," "britchka," "troika," "wurt," "tandem," "caleche," "tilbury," "dog-cart," "wagonette," "go-cart," "victoria," "brougham," "diligence," "clarence" and "post-chaise." If we notice these words at all, we tend to savor them as archaic Victorian music rather than to identify and evaluate them as specific forms of transportation."
My point is that we read Victorian novels with one hand tied behind our backs, so to speak, when we don't know whether a dog-cart or a clarence or a wurt delineates rich or poor, stylish or provincial, pretentious or aggressive or modest.
Perpetually naive, I thought that I had pretty much exhausted the list of nineteenth-century horsedrawn conveyances. However, by a curious coincidence, I just yesterday happened upon two more such vehicles. The first is a "basket-carriage," an example of which I observed with my very own eyes at the New York Historical Society at Central Park West and 77th Street. A basket-carriage is a coach constructed of wicker. The carriage on exhibit looked mighty comfortable for summer travel but would be frigid and leaky when winter winds are raging. A second new conveyance materialized in Nikolai Gogol's story, The Carriage. It's the very versatile "tarantass" -- a horsedrawn coach fitted with removable wheels so that it could be converted into a sled come winter. Are there still more to be discovered? I wouldn't be surprised if there are. Stay tuned.
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