Barouche

A barouche

Royal Barouche in London, 2009.

A barouche was a type of horse-drawn carriage fashionable in the 19th century. Developed from the calash of the 18th century,^[1] it was a four-wheeled, shallow vehicle with two double seats inside, arranged vis-à-vis, so that the sitters on the front seat faced those on the back seat. It had a soft collapsible half-hood folding like a bellows over the back seat and a high outside box seat in front for the driver. The entire carriage was suspended on C springs. It was drawn by a pair of high-quality horses and was used principally for leisure driving in the summer. A light barouche was a barouchet or barouchette. A barouche-sociable was described as a cross between a barouche and a victoria.

The word barouche is an anglicisation of the German word barutsche, via the Italian baroccio or biroccio and ultimately from the Latin birotus, "two-wheeled". The name thus became a misnomer, as the later form of the carriage had four wheels.

Calash

A two-wheeled calash

A four-wheeled calash to be drawn by a pair (Podstreda Castle)

A Philippine kalesa.

The earlier carriage type, called calash or calèche, was also a light carriage with small wheels, inside seats for four passengers, a separate driver's seat and a folding top. A folding calash top was a feature of two other types: the chaise, a two-wheeled carriage for one or two persons, a body hung on leather straps or thorough-braces, usually drawn by one horse; and a victoria, a low four-wheeled pleasure carriage for two with a raised seat in front for the driver.

In Quebec, Canada, calèche refers to a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle with or without a folding top and with a driver's seat on the splashboard.^[2]

In the Philippines, the kalesa is a one-horse descendant of Spanish Colonial calashes, and is a common sight in older cities such as Manila and Vigan.

See also

• Carriage

Notes

1. ↑ Casanova mentions a calèche à 2 roues (two-wheeled calash) first in 1742, a calèche à 4 roues (four-wheeled calash) in 1758 (Gunther)
2. ↑ Musée McCord Museum - Caleche, Dufferin Terrace, Quebec City, QC, about 1920. McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal, Quebec.

References

• B1499 Horse-drawn carriage, barouche, timber / metal / glass / leather / textile, made by Shanks and Co, London, England, used by John Brown Watt in Sydney before 1888 - Powerhouse Museum Collection. Search barouche. Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia.
• Barouche: Definition with Barouche Pictures and Photos. Lexicus.
• Freesound :: view sample :: CalecheDownAlley.wav, Institut Universitari de l'Audiovisual (Institute of Audiovisual Studies), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Sound file.

External links

Look up barouche in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Barouche.

• Watch The Calèche Driver at NFB.ca

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Barouches.