Jaunting Car

in Dublin (1894)]] Predecessors to the jaunting car are the cart-car (mid-18th century northern Ireland), and the trottle cart made from rough carved timbers and lacking springs. According to D. J. Smith, the jaunting car "first appeared in the streets of Dublin, as a means of public transport, about 1813". In 1815, Charles Bianconi, an Italian-Irish entrepreneur, established a transport business in southern Ireland areas not served by stagecoaches. In the early 1800s, the British government levied a tax on every "jaunting car or pleasure car", providing an opportunity for Bianconi to cheaply purchase family outside cars to start his car-for-hire business. At one point he had 140 agents…

Outside of Ireland, jaunting car usually refers to the "outside car"; within Ireland it mostly means a horse-drawn vehicle for hire for passengers, especially tourists, and is driven by a jarvey who is usually the proprietor. The outside car is a high light carriage for a single horse. There are two seats placed lengthwise with the passengers sitting back-to-back and facing outward (left or right of the car). Sizes have varied, but the typical outside car holds four adult passengers. The foot boards are outside of the wheels, and are hinged so they can be folded up over the seats to make the carriage narrower, protect empty seats from bad weather, or to grease the wheels. The driver has a…