A chaise, sometimes called chay

Chay

Chay may refer to:*Chay , a given name*Chay, Doubs, a commune in eastern France*chay, akin to words for tea in several languages*CHAY-FM...

or shay, is a light two - or four-wheeled traveling or pleasure carriage

Carriage

A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...

, with a folding hood

Hood

-Apparel:* Hood , type of head covering** Article of Academic dress** Animal hood, something used in costume play or part of an animal transformation fantasy** Bondage hood, sex toy-Anatomy:* Hood , flap of skin behind the head of a cobra...

 or calash top for one or two people.

The name came from the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 for chair

Chair

A chair is a stable, raised surface used to sit on, commonly for use by one person. Chairs are most often supported by four legs and have a back; however, a chair can have three legs or could have a different shape depending on the criteria of the chair specifications. A chair without a back or...

, through a transference from a sedan-chair to a wheeled vehicle. In the winter of 1791/92, in the opening phases of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough

Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough

Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough , born Lady Henrietta Frances Spencer , was the wife of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough and mother of the notorious Lady Caroline Lamb. Her father, John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer, was a great-grandson of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough...

, noted the lack of ostentation in the streets of Paris, where a few drove themselves about in "little open chaises like the cabriolet

Cabriolet (carriage)

A cabriolet is a light horse-drawn vehicle, with two wheels and a single horse. The carriage has a folding hood that can cover its two occupants, one of whom is the driver. It has a large rigid apron, gracefully upward-curving shafts, and usually a rear platform between the C springs for a groom...

 but with one horse." The two-wheeled version, usually of a chair-backed type, for one or two persons, also called a gig

Gig (carriage)

A gig, also called chair or chaise, is a light, two-wheeled sprung cart pulled by one horse.-Description:Gigs travelling at night would normally carry two oil lamps with thick glass, known as gig-lamps. Gig carts are constructed with the driver's seat sitting higher than the level of the shafts. ...

or one-horse shay

One-horse shay

The one-horse shay is a light, covered, two-wheeled carriage for two persons, drawn by a single horse. It is the American adaptation, originating in Union, Maine, of the French chaise, and is also known as a whisky as its owners tended to whisk about doing errands...

, had a body hung on leather straps or thorough-braces and was usually drawn by one horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

; a light chaise having two seats was a double chair .

The term chaise-cart was used for a light carriage fitted with suspension

Suspension (vehicle)

Suspension is the term given to the system of springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels. Suspension systems serve a dual purpose — contributing to the car's roadholding/handling and braking for good active safety and driving pleasure, and keeping vehicle occupants...

, used for transporting lightweight goods.

The post-chaise was a fast carriage for traveling post in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It usually had a closed body on four wheels, sat two to four persons, and was drawn by two or four horses. The driver, especially when there was no coachman

Coachman

A coachman is a man whose business it is to drive a coach, a horse-drawn vehicle designed for the conveyance of more than one passenger — and of mail — and covered for protection from the elements...

, rode postillion on the near horse of a pair or of one of the pairs attached to the post-chaise.

Another term for a chaise was chair, also called riding chair. A bath chair

Bath chair

A bath chair—or Bath chair—is a rolling chaise or light carriage with a folding hood, which can be open or closed, and a glass front. Used especially by invalids, it is mounted on three or four wheels and drawn or pushed by hand. It is so named from its origin in Bath, England, and possibly also...

was a hooded and sometimes glassed wheeled chair used especially by invalids; it could be drawn by a horse or pushed by an attendant.

Other types of chaise included:

• calesín: small, one-horse, hooded, a seat behind for the driver, used in the Philippines
• curricle
  Curricle
  A curricle was a smart, light two-wheeled chaise or "chariot", large enough for the driver and a passenger and— most unusual for a vehicle with a single axle—usually drawn by a carefully matched pair of horses...
  
  : two-wheeled, usually drawn by two horses
• shandrydan or shandradan: with a hood