THE CASANOVA TOUR
by Pablo Günther
TRAVELLING CARRIAGES - (part III, VI - VIII) - Casanova's Carriages (2) - 8. Geneva 2 - 9. Lyons - 10. Wesel - 11. Riga - 12. Warsaw - 13. Paris 3 - 14. Salerno - II. His Carriages in Paris (continuation: Carriages 15. - 17. part VIII )
The very beautiful "Diligence à l'anglaise" of the Musée de la Voiture et du Tourisme at Compiègne, France. I presume that it was built in France around 1775. Berlin-undercarriage with crane-necks and the body, suspended in S-springs, in the perfect shape of an English travelling coupé. - Photo: PG.
Purchase of an English Coupé in Geneva:(HL,VIII/4,p.83.) That evening, as the Syndic and I were on our way to visit our pretty cousins, I saw a fine English carriagefor sale, and I exchanged it for mine, giving a hundred louis to boot.
Excursion to Lodi:(HL,VIII/9,p.252.) I took a place on the folding seat of my carriage, holding the Countess's son on a big pillow in my lap.
The memorable journey from Genoa to Lyons:(HL,IX/2,p.33.) My felucca, which was of good size, had twelve rowers and was armed with some small cannon and with twenty-four muskets, so that we should be able to defend ourselves against pirates. [My servant] Clairmont had cleverly had my carriage and my luggage arranged in such a way that five mattresses were stretched across them at full length, so that we could have slept and even undressed as if in a room. We had good pillows and wide covers. A long tent of serge covered the whole ship, and two lanterns hung from the two ends of the long beam which held up the tent.
From Genoa to Antibes, Casanova had four companions: his brother Gaetano, the young ladies - La Crosin of Marseille and Marcolina of Venice, and the painter Passano.
At Menton:(P.39f.) We go on board the felucca; and the officer, delighted with my fine carriage, falls to examining it. (...).
A few days later, Casanova and Marcolina arrived at Lyons and put up at the Hotel du Parc. This was witnessed by a young French lady, Marie de Nairne, and described in a letter of 28th May 1763 (Compigny des Bordes,p.2) to her fiancé, the Scotch Baron Michel de Ramsay, (extracts by C de Bordes; translated by Gillian Rees):(HL,IX/5,p.119 ff.) "I must," said Signor Querini, "see about putting my major-domo in another carriage, for the calash holds only two.""This stunning traveller arrived in a berlin at the Hotel on the Park in Lyon towards five o'clock in the evening. He immediately created a hullabaloo because he was not given the room he claimed he had booked in advance. His servant, like himself, had the same threatening manner. (...) But at table, once the hors d'oeuvre had been served, he was in charming humour, expounding enthusiastically upon a thousand different subjects. We hung on his lips. (...) The Chevalier d'Agis, who sat near him, burned with desire to know this extraordinary individual. (...) He was tall, with a tanned complexion, richly dressed with heavy jewelled rings on his fingers. His foreign accent was highly comical. A very good looking young woman, dark and with dazzling teeth, and the same foreign accent, who had come with him in the coach, laughed ceaselessly at the stories related for our amusement. (...) On leaving the table, he proposed a game at which M. de Longuemare held the bank. The Chevalier lost twenty louis, M. de Longuemare about a hundred, and the astonishing stranger won some rolls [of money]. (...) Before we went to bed, he offered some sweets to the ladies, and at last M. d'Agis, as he had wished, was able to talk to him. (...) It was M. de Casanova, a Venetian noble."Still at Lyons. Casanova decided to send Marcolina back in the company of the Venetian Ambassadors on their return home. He presented her with 400,000 Bayocks (converted), and in addition his carriage, because he wanted to secure her future:
The Procurators Tommaso Querini and Francesco II. Lorenzo Morosini were the Ambassadors who, only a few weeks before these events, rode in their "New State Coach" from Somerset House to St. James's, where they congratulated King George III (somewhat belatedly) on his accession to the throne in the name of the Republic of Venice. - "The Venetian Ambassadors New State Coach in the Public Entry in London April 18th 1763". Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Photo: PG.
This Chaise de Poste looks exactly like the "Solitaire" described by Casanova. - Photo: Rudolf H. Wackernagel, Munich.
Purchase of the Solitaire in Lyons:(HL,IX/5,p.123f.) Needing distraction, I told Clairmont to inform the innkeeper [of the Hotel du Parc] that I would eat at the public table, and at the same time I told him to find out where there was a decent carriage for sale, for I wanted to leave as soon as possible. (...).
But things turned out quite differently. Departure from Lyons:(P.129f.) I got into my one-seater, Adèle sat down between my thighs, [her father] Moreau got up behind, Clairmont mounted his horse, and we set off. It was nine o'clock.
So much about Casanova's trouble and fatigue when travelling!(HL,IX/7,p.159.) I had scarcely arrived before I summoned the innkeeper and had him give me a receipt for my post chaise, which I was leaving with him, countersigning it, and I at once chartered a packet boat so that it should be at my orders whenever I pleased.
On the way to London, in Calais:
Nine months later:(HL,X/2,p.34.) At Calais I went ashore and at once I went to bed in the Golden Arm Inn, where my post chaise was.
Posting in Germany only with carriages with a pole:(P.38f.) (...) and I left in my post chaise, which kept me in dispair because the post horses [in Germany] were not accustomed to shafts; I resolved to get rid of it at Wesel. No sooner had I arrived at the inn that I went to bed, and I told Daturi to discuss exchanging it for a four-wheeled carriage.
An English Coupé, designed presumably at Paris, about 1770. Undercarriage with one perch and two crane-necks. - Musée de la Voiture et du Tourisme, Compiègne. Photo: PG.
Purchase of a coupé at Wesel:(HL,X/2,p.38 f.) (...) I resolved to get rid of it [the Chaise de Poste "Lyons"] at Wesel. No sooner had I arrived at the inn that I went to bed, and I told Daturi to discuss exchanging it for a four-wheeled carriage.
Russian travel and sleeping car. This is what Casanova's "sleeping car" could have looked like. After removing the wheels, sled runners were attached. - Cover photo from: Herbert von Hoerner, "Die Kutscherin des Zaren (The Czar's Coachgirl)", Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1989.
"Short journey" from Riga to St. Petersburg (590 km):(HL,X/5,p.98f.) Campioni left me his Schlafwagen, which obliged me to travel to Petersburg with six horses. (...).
Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow (750 km):(HL,X/6,p.123f.) Everything being arranged for my journey to Moscow, I got into my Schlafwagen with [my girlfriend] Zaire, with a manservant who spoke Russian and German up behind. For eighty rubles [4,320 d.] an izvozchik [coachman and carrier] contracted to take me to Moscow in six days and seven nights with six horses. It was cheap, and, not taking the post, I could not expect to travel faster, for the journey was seventy-two Russian stages, which made five hundred Italian miles [750 km] more or less. It seemed to me impossible, but that was his business. (...).
It was there that I saw something which surprised me. Invited to drink a glass, the coachman looked very gloomy, he told Zaire that one of his horses would not eat, and he was in despair, for he was sure that, not having eaten, it could not go on. We all go out with him, we enter the stable, and we see the horse listless, motionless, with no appetite. Its master began haranguing it in the gentlest of tones, giving it looks of affection and esteem calculated to inspire the animal with sentiments which would persuade it to eat. After thus haranguing it, he kissed the horse, took his head in his hands and put it in the manger; but it was useless. The man then began to weep, but in such a way that I was dying to laugh, for I saw that he hoped to soften the horse's heart by his tears. After weeping his fill, he again kisses the beast and again puts his head in the manger; but again to no purpose. At that the Russian, in a towering rage at such obstinacy in his beast, swears vengeance. He leads it out of the stable, ties the poor creature to a post, takes a big stick, and beats it with all his strength for a good quarter of an hour. When he can go on no longer, he takes it back to the stable, puts his head in the trough, whereupon the horse eats with ravenous appetite, and the izvozchik laughs, jumps up and down, and cuts a thousand happy capers. My astonishment was extreme. I thought that such a thing could happen only in Russia, where the stick has such virtue that it performs miracles. But I have thought that it would not have happened with a donkey, which stands up under a beating much more stubbornly than a horse.(P.126.) We arrived in Moscow as our man had promised us we should do. It was not possible to arrive there more quickly, traveling always with the same horses; but by post one goes there rapidly.
Back in Petersburg. Manoeuvres in Krasnoje Selo:(P.137.) We arrive at eight o'clock in the morning at the place where, on this first day, the maneuvers went on until noon, and afterward we stop in front of a tavern, where we have food brought to us in the [sleeping-]carriage, for the place was so full that we could not have found room. After dinner my coachman goes everywhere to look for some sort of lodging, but none is to be found. What of it? - not wanting to go back to Petersburg, I decide to lodge in my carriage. That was what I did for all the three days, and what was declared excellent by all those who had spent a great deal and who had been very poorly lodged. Melissino told me that the Empress had declared my expedient very sensible. My house, of course, was movable, and I placed myself at the points which were always the safest and the most convenient in respect to the place where the maneuvers were to be held on that particular day. In addition my carriage was expressly made to afford perfect comfort on a mattress, for it was a sleeper. I was the only person who had such a carriage at the review; visits were paid me, and Zaire shone in doing the honors of the house in Russian, which I was very sorry I did not understand.
Journey back to Königsberg, and from there to Warsaw:(HL,X/7,p.157f.) After this sad parting [from Zaire] La Valville became my only mistress, and in three or four weeks I was ready to leave with her. (...).
French Berlin-Coupé with a typical English body for town use, suspended by Polignac-springs (cf. next picture). About 1775. - Musée de la Voiture et du Tourisme, Compiègne. Photo: PG.
Departure from Warsaw:(HL,X/8,p.206f.) The generous Moczynski embraced me and begged me to accept the small present he was going to make me of a carriage, since I had none, and he asked me to write to him. (...).
Departure from Breslau:(P.210f.) Early the next morning everything is ready, the horses are harnessed, I set off, and a hundred paces outside the city gate my postilion stops. The window at my right being down, I see a package come in, I look, and I see the young woman, whom to tell the truth I had forgotten; my manservant opens the door for her, she sits down beside me, I find the thing done to perfection, I praise her, swearing that I had not expected such shrewdness, and we are off.
This design widely corresponds to the coupé shown before. "Profil géométral d'une Diligence à la polignac déssinné par Taazin fils en 1774" (at Paris?). - Musée de la Voiture et du Tourisme, Compiègne. Photo: PG.
An English two-wheeled post chaise. - From: Ivan Sparkes, Stagecoaches and Carriages, Letchworth 1975. Photo: Rudolf H. Wackernagel.
Departure from Paris with destination Madrid:(HL,X/12,p.298f.) It was November 6th. I did not leave until the 20th. I exchanged my carriage, which had four wheels [coupé "Warsaw"], for one with two and room for only one person; (...).
"Diligence monté à l'Angloise". Design by Chopard, Ménuisier, Paris, about 1770. - Musée de la Voiture et du Tourisme, Compiègne. Photo: PG.
At Bologna:(HL,XII/6,p.135f.) Two or three days later I have post horses harnessed to my carriage and I go to the gentleman's country house. (...).
Sale of his last Coupé, at Bologna:(P.152f.) At this time I put up my coupé for sale. I needed money, and I preferred selling my carriage to selling some other possession which I liked better. I set the price of it at three hundred and fifty Roman scudi. The carriage was beautiful and comfortable and worth this amount. The proprietor of the stable where it was came to tell me that the Vice-Legate offered me three hundred scudi for it; I took real pleasure in thwarting the wish of a prelate who possessed the object of my vain desires [the dancer La Viscioletta]. I replied that I did not care to haggle and that I had already announced the price.
The
originality of these expressions made it necessary for me to be silent,
for I feared that too acid a reply might anger him. I left him there, saying
that I would not lower the price by a copper.
Street traffic in Paris in the 1750's was not much different to that in London. Fatal accidents happened every day. Considerable noise and enormous quantities of horse dung burdened the environment. And in all that, a fast driving Casanova... - From: A. S. Turberville, Johnson's England. Oxford 1933.II. His Carriages in Paris.
In 1758, Casanova, who after being given a share in the lottery of the École Militaire, became a rich man and settled down in Paris or, more exactly, outside the city walls, "in the country", as he said. Naturally, from there he needed a private carriage to go into the city. He reports:(HL,vol.V,p.179 f.) Having made up my mind to take a country house, I decided on "Little Poland" after looking at several. It was well furnished, a hundred paces beyond the Madeleine barrier [custom house]. The house was on a little hill near the "Royal Hunt" [inn] and behind the Duke of Gramont's garden. The name the owner had given it was "Airy Warsaw". It had two gardens, one of which was on the level of the second floor, three master's apartments, a stable for twenty horses, baths, a good cellar, and a large kitchen with all the necessary pots and pans. (...) [The owner] rented me his house for a hundred louis a year [converted, per month: 2,000 d.] and gave me an excellent female cook, known as "the Pearl" (...). He also promised me cheaper fodder for my horses, and in fact everything, since whatever entered Paris had to pay and, being there, I was in the country.
Soon after that, having joined a ball at the opera:(P.182) (...) I went to little Poland. It took me only a quarter of an hour. I was living in the country, and in a quarter of an hour I could be anywhere I pleased in the city. My coachman drove like the wind, my horses being of the kind called enragés and not intended to be spared. Such horses, cast-offs from the King's stable, were a luxury. When he drove one of them to death for me I replaced it for two hundred francs [2,000 d.]. One of the greatest pleasures in Paris is driving fast.
Paying his respects to a young business woman, Casanova continued with this great pleasure:(P.252) In love with her (...) I passed her shop three or four times a day, paying no attention to my coachman's repeated warnings that the long detours were killing my horses. I loved the way she threw kisses and the eagerness with which she watched for the first glimpse of my carriage.
"Diable". - Encyclopédie, Paris 1769. Photo: PG.
It is clear that Casanova did not speed through Paris with the usual heavy berlins or chariots, thus it is more likely to have been a light carriage like the "Diable" (photo), a type illustrated in the Encyclopédie and by Roubo, and mentioned by Casanova on the occasion of his first sojourn in Paris from 1750 to 1752:(HL,vol.III,p.148) [The Prince of Monaco and I] get into a diable, a carriage then fashionable, and by eleven o'clock in the morning we are being received by the Duchess.
However, the diable shown has no coachman's seat, so perhaps Casanova owned another model with a seat for his driver. The type "diable" is of a calash, with a berlin-undercarriage in French style and thoroughbraces. The front side of the body was heavily upholstered (above right in the picture) thus being a forerunner of an airbag."Diligence à Cul de Singe". - Encyclopédie, Paris 1769. Photo: PG.
Another light carriage was a berlin-coupé‚ called a "Diligence" (photo). It had a coachman's seat, and even a folding seat in the interior (at the picture below shown separately on the right upper side), which was highly esteemed by Casanova in his several English Coupés.
