Coachman
Encyclopedia
Coach (carriage)
A coach was originally a large, usually closed, four-wheeled carriage with two or more horses harnessed as a team, controlled by a coachman and/or one or more postilions. It had doors in the sides, with generally a front and a back seat inside and, for the driver, a small, usually elevated seat in...
, a horse-drawn vehicle
Horse-drawn vehicle
A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load...
designed for the conveyance of more than one passenger — and of mail — and covered for protection from the elements. He has also been called a coachee, coachy or whip.
Historical
The term "coachman" is correctly applied to the driver of any type of coach, but it had a specialized meaning before the advent of motor vehicleMotor vehicle
A motor vehicle or road vehicle is a self-propelled wheeled vehicle that does not operate on rails, such as trains or trolleys. The vehicle propulsion is provided by an engine or motor, usually by an internal combustion engine, or an electric motor, or some combination of the two, such as hybrid...
s, as the servant who preceded the chauffeur
Chauffeur
A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine.Originally such drivers were always personal servants of the vehicle owner, but now in many cases specialist chauffeur service companies, or individual drivers provide...
in domestic service. In a great house
Great house
A great house is a large and stately residence; the term encompasses different styles of dwelling in different countries. The name refers to the makeup of the household rather than to any particular architectural style...
, this would have been a specialty, but in more modest households, the coachman would have doubled as the stablehand or groom
Groom (horses)
A groom is a person who is responsible for some or all aspects of the management of horses and/or the care of the stables themselves. The term most often refers to a person who is the employee of a stable owner, but even an owner of a horse may perform the duties of a groom, particularly if the...
.
In early coaches he sat on a built-in compartment called a boot, bracing his feet on a footrest called a footboard. He was often pictured wearing a box coat or box jacket, a heavy overcoat
Overcoat
An overcoat is a type of long coat intended to be worn as the outermost garment. Overcoats usually extend below the knee, but are sometimes mistakenly referred to as topcoats, which are short coats that end at or above the knees. Topcoats and overcoats together are known as outercoats...
with or without shoulder capes, double-breasted, with fitted waist and wide lapels; its name derives from its use by coachmen riding on the box seat, exposed to all kinds of weather. An ornamented, often fringed cloth called a hammercloth might have hung over the coachman's seat, especially of a ceremonial coach. He could be seen taking refreshments at a type of public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
called a watering house.
A coachman was sometimes called a jarvey or jarvie, especially in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(Jarvey was a nickname for Jarvis
Jarvis
Jarvis is a surname and, less frequently, a male given name.* Ann Jarvis , social activist, founder of Mother's day holiday.* Anna Jarvis , daughter of Ann Jarvis.* Jarvis Cocker Jarvis is a surname and, less frequently, a male given name.* Ann Jarvis (1832 - 1905), social activist, founder of...
). In the first of his Sherlock Holmes stories, 'A Study in Scarlet', Conan Doyle refers to the driver of a small cab in London as a jarvey. A coachman who drove dangerously fast or recklessly might invoke biblical or mytholological allusions: Some referred to him as a jehu, recalling King Jehu
Jehu
Jehu was a king of Israel. He was the son of Jehoshaphat, and grandson of Nimshi.William F. Albright has dated his reign to 842-815 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 841-814 BC...
of Israel
History of ancient Israel and Judah
Israel and Judah were related Iron Age kingdoms of ancient Palestine. The earliest known reference to the name Israel in archaeological records is in the Merneptah stele, an Egyptian record of c. 1209 BCE. By the 9th century BCE the Kingdom of Israel had emerged as an important local power before...
, who was noted for his furious attacks in a chariot
Chariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
(2 Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
9:20) before he died about 816 BCE. Others dubbed him a Phaeton, harking back to the Greek Phaëton
Phaëton
In Greek mythology, Phaëton or Phaethon was the son of Helios and the Oceanid Clymene. Alternate, less common genealogies make him a son of Clymenus by Merope, of Helios and Rhode or of Helios and Prote....
, son of Helios
Helios
Helios was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
who, attempting to drive the chariot of the sun, managed to set the earth on fire. When there was no coachman, a postilion or postillion sometimes rode as a guide on the near horse of a pair or of one of the pairs attached to a coach.
Hungarian folklore
The English word coach, the Spanish and Portuguese coche, the German Kutsche, and the Slovak and Czech koč all probably derive from the HungarianHungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
word "kocsi", literally meaning "of Kocs". Kocs
Kocs
Kocs is a village in Komárom-Esztergom county, Hungary. It lies west of Tata and west of Budapest.-History:Kocs is best known internationally as giving rise to the English word coach and its equivalents in nearly all European languages, for example: Czech koč, German kutsche, Dutch koets,...
was a Hungarian post town, and the coach itself may have been invented in Hungary. Hungarian villages such as Zakopane still hold Coachman of the Year competitions.
The coachman soon became a prominent figure in Hungarian folklore. As the Clever Coachman (tudós kocsis), he turns up unexpectedly in the hero's life, either knowing his name or naming him by his true name. After the hero enters the coach, the coachman becomes a kind of guide. He may not take the hero to where he wants to go, but he always takes him to where he needs to be. Many of Steven Brust
Steven Brust
Steven Karl Zoltán Brust is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. He was a member of the writers' group The Scribblies, which included Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, Will Shetterly, Nate Bucklin, Kara Dalkey, and Patricia Wrede; he also belongs to the Pre-Joycean...
's novels play with this image of the coachman.
Other uses
Coachman is also a synonym for the pennant coralfishPennant coralfish
The pennant coralfish , also known as the longfin bannerfish or coachman is a tropical fish of the family Chaetodontidae. It is also known colloquially as the "poor man's moorish idol".-Appearance:...
(Heniochus Monoceros).
Coachman is also a very famous fly used for flyfishing. The pattern exist as both a
dry-fly and wet-fly. The pattern is composed before 1860 in England.