A chaise is a shaez is a shay?

The story I'm working on recently took a turn I hadn't expected. Thinking it over, I decided that it was much better than my original idea, so I decided to roll with it. The change involved that the travel I had planned would take place off-stage, now became a vital part of the plot. Unlike my original plan, the trip would also no longer be by private carriage, but by public means - stage coach or rented carriages. Stage coach was my original idea, and it makes for so many
great scenes, but I just can't wrap my mind around my characters doing anything so horribly common if they had a choice. Plus, don't get me into the headache it would be to try to dig up proper time schedules for a stage coach between A and B in 1753 including what inns they might have used. That is just asking for trouble.

No, they would have to use rented carriages. And since every text book I've read has spoken of the excellent system of post-chaises, it didn't seem like it would be very complicated. That is, until I dove into the issue a little closer.

You see, the cheerful declarations on the comfort and speed of the post chaise system, which are usually described as regarding "the 18th century" are, once they are examined all built upon quotes from the late 1770s and onwards. Before that, the sources suddenly started to diverge.

I've come across a reference to the system of "riding post" - which means changing horses at various inns - that goes back to at least the 16th century. Then all descriptions are very hasty, until references from the late 18th century are made (also quite a few are really Regency, being passed off as "18th century" - don't get me started on how that annoys me). There is one book from 1767 called Kitchin's post-Chaise Companion through England and Wales but that is the first firsthand source I found that mentions it. On the other hand, one book states that:

"In 1743 the system of travelling post, which so long before as 1664 had been common in France, was introduced into England by one John Trull, an artillery officer, who obtained a patent for letting carriages for hire across country."

- Carriages & Coaches by Strauss

That gives the impression that a post system for carriages might still have been a new thing for my characters, who live in 1753. On the other hand, glancing at the storyline of Tom Jones, A Foundling by Henry Fielding, which is written in 1749 and takes place in 1745, Tom and Partridge happily travel by post - although if this means a coach or if they are riding, I don't remember. Sophia Western is also traveling about England in it but I couldn't find what means she's using. Anyway, I seem to be able to assume that a post system for carriages could at least have been available for my characters in 1753. If I decide it was on the route they travel.

But what kind of vehicle would they have traveled by? All accounts talk about "post chaises" but what IS a chaise? According to Wikipedia a chaise (and I have also seen the spellings chaize and shaez as well as shay and chay) is:

"A chaise, sometimes called chay or shay, was a formerly popular, light two- or four-wheeled traveling or pleasure carriage, usually of a chair-backed type, with a movable hood or calash top. The name came from the French for chair, through a transference from a sedan-chair to a wheeled vehicle. The two-wheeled version, for one or two persons, also called a gig or one-horse shay, had a body hung on leather straps or thorough-braces and was usually drawn by one horse; a light chaise having two seats was a double chair . The four-wheeled pleasure carriage type was similar."

Most often, a post chaise is claimed to have been yellow, but again, these quotes are all from 1780s and on. Anyway, the described type of carriage was in use in France already by the late 17th century, but it seems that anything similar did not exist in England. Again, Strauss claims that:

"The door of these first post-chaises 'was hinged at the bottom and fell forward on to a small dasher like a gentleman's cabriolet,' and there was a window on either side. 'It was hung upon two very lofty wheels,' says Thrupp, 'and long shafts for one horse, and the body was rather in front of the wheels, so that the weight on the horse's back must have been considerable. It was suspended at first upon leather braces only, but later upon two up-right or whip springs behind, and two elbow springs in front from the body to the cross-bar, which joined the shafts and carried the step.'"

And yes, I looked up Thrupp's book but it didn't go any further into detail than that. Certainly, I find no account of the typical post chaise type with good springs and a large window in front that made Dr. Johnson exclaim:

"If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman."

until the 1770s and no mention of them being yellow until Regency time. Then again, the "term chaise was also used for any light carriage or pleasure cart." Also, I've seen it used just for just any type of carriage or coach too (it is what the French word means after all) so I guess my characters might have thought of it as a "post chaise" no matter what type of carriage it was.

So, to sum it up. I am going to dig out Tom Jones and reread it. I meant to do that anyway. I will continue to try to find some proper books on carriages that don't just gloss over the mid-18th century (or try to pretend that 1784 IS mid-18th century). Meanwhile, I am going to assume that they could indeed travel by post in a smallish carriage that opened in front in 1753.

If anyone could help, I'd be much obliged!


Picture from Strauss' book, which as far as I could find is out of copyright