THE CASANOVA TOUR
by Pablo Günther
( Contents ) Part
II:
POSTING, ALPINE PASSES,
SHIPS:
Casanova and Travelling in the Century of the Grand Tour.
(continuation of part
I :) The Post: National Peculiarities
- French Regulations for Travelling Post
- Costs : Six
thousand Posthorses / 1 Posthorse
/ Stage-Coaches / Carriers
/ Hired Carriages / Cambiatura
/ Taxis / Purchase of Carriages-
Rich
and Poor Private Carriage Travellers - Speeds
- Roads - Alpine Passes
- The Mont Cenis - Ships
. (Part III : Travelling Carriages)
The Post: National Peculiarities.
Around 1725 most of the European
states had their own national posts but there were a few exceptions and
peculiarities:
In Switzerland, there were
different private post companies which did not rent horses to travellers.
Casanova
states briefly (GmL,vol.VI,p.98) : "in Switzerland,
there were no posts". Nevertheless, he could drive in his own carriage
through the country, evidently providing himself with horses from carriers.
The official post of the Holy Roman
Empire was the Thurn und Taxis Reichspost, founded in 1490.
This company provided the South, the West, some middle states and the Austrian
Netherlands. Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Hessen - Kassel, Hannover, Brunswick,
Mecklenburg and larger Empire- or Hansa-cities had their own state posts.
In Italy, there were six large
state posts:
1. The Austrian Post, which provided the Duchies of Milan,
Mantua and Tuscany;
2. The Roman Post of the Ecclesiastical State;
3. The Post of the Kingdom of Sardinia (Savoy, Piedmont);
4. The Post of the Kingdom of Naples;
5. The Post of the Republic of Genoa;
6. The Post of the Republic of Venice.
In addition, there were the smaller posts of Modena and
Parma, as well as the Thurn und Taxis Reichspost (also called "Flandrian
Post") in some other cities.
.
French Regulations for
Travelling Post.
I give here an excerpt from
the "Extraits des Règlements sur le Fait des Postes" of the 1781
guide of post stations "Liste Générale des Postes de France"
(italics, "postillon" and the &: original writing). The regulations
of most countries' post companies were similar to the French.
Weights & loading with trunks, suitcases, boxes
& porte-manteaux.
Two-wheeled carriages, with thills
(brancard);
and those on four wheels, with a single seat, having shafts (limonière),
must not to be loaded at the rear with more than a hundred pounds (livres),
& at the front with more than forty.
Every Courier à franc étrier[at
a gallop; that is here a person accompanying a private carriage, e.g. Casanova's
servant Le Duc as fore-rider], can only load his saddle-bags.
The Couriers en guide [these
are single travellers] cannot transport with them a wooden
box but only a porte-manteau of at most fifty pounds; which must not be
loaded on the croup by the postillon.
Number of horses & postillons necessary to
couriers.
Every Courier at a gallop who is not
accompanying a carriage, must engage a mounted postillon to serve him as
a guide [like Casanova did when riding
from Pont-de-Beauvoisin to Lyons].
One postillon can guide five couriers
at a gallop; if there are six, they have to engage a second postillon.
The number of horses to be paid for
must be equal to the number of passengers in the carriage, whether travelling
behind or on the seat, (...) as explained in detail in the following:
Two-wheeled carriages, with thills.
Carrying one person, they must be
guided by one postillon & harnessed to two horses [like
Casanova
in his several chaises de poste].
Two persons:
one postillon, three horses.
Three persons:
one postillon, three horses, but one has to pay for four.
Four persons:
one postillon, three horses, but one pays for five.
(...)
The cabriolets
called à soufflets & all others without glass-windows,
if they carry a single person, should not be harnessed to more than two
horses, and guided by one postillon.
Four-wheeled carriages, having a single seat and
shafts.
Carrying one or two persons, without
luggage, they should be guided by one postillon & harnessed to three
horses.
Two persons,
with suitcase & porte-manteau, required two postillons and four horses.
Three persons:
two postillons, four horses, but to pay for five.
Four persons:
two postillons, six horses.
Four-wheeled carriages, with poles.
Carrying one or two persons, should
be guided by two postillons & be harnessed to four horses [like
Casanova in his several coupés].
Three persons:
two postillons, four horses, but to pay for five.
Four persons:
two postillons, six horses.
Five persons:
two postillons, six horses, but to pay for seven.
Six persons:
three postillons, eight horses, but to pay for nine.
(Ordonnances du 28 Novembre 1756.)
Prices of horses.
Throughout the Kingdom, all persons
of whatever qualité & condition, must pay before leaving
the post station, twenty five sols per post for every horse, for whatever
use it is required [12.5 Pence (d.); 1.38 d. per kilometre].
(Ordon.
des 8 Déc. 1738 & 28 Nov. 1756) See the calcul:
Table of prices for post horses. "Liste Générale
des Postes de France", Paris 1781. - Photo: Museum Achse, Rad und
Wagen, Wiehl.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Postes Royales.
When entering & leaving the cities
of Paris, Versailles & Lyons, even during the absence of the King,
the first post costs double (...).
Traverse.
Post-masters are forbidden to guide
Couriers [travellers] more than four leagues [4
lieues = 18 km] in the traverse [off the post road]
(...).
Embarquements.
When Couriers leave a post
station to embark upon a riverboat, the leaseholders of the water Coches
& Diligences, or the ferrymen of the towns where these postes are
situated, are forbidden to embark the said couriers without payment of
three livres to the postmasters for every person, whether master or servant.
Couriers are regarded as those
who embark Berlines or Chaises, saddles or boots. (Ordonnances des 19
Aout 1735 & 15 Avril 1746.)
Chevaux de Malle, de Service ou de Diligences.
Travellers are forbidden to take away,
par
ruse ou par violence, horses destined for use with freight-wagons,
stage-coaches, or even those which the postmasters have been ordered to
reserve.
Police.
Couriers at a gallop are forbidden
to use their own bridles.
They must not overtake the postillon;
all postmasters are forbidden to supply horses to accompanied Couriers
arriving without their postillon (...).
Fore-riders have to stay at the post
station until their master's carriage has arrived.
It is forbidden to ill-treat the servants,
the postillons, or the horses (...).
Postmasters are not allowed to supply
horses for a carriage drawn by horses not belonging to the post.
Travellers cannot force a postillon
to go more than one post (stage).
Travellers have to be served in the
order in which they arrive at the post.
Postmasters are forbidden to employ
postillons less than sixteen years old.
The costs for turnpikes, ferries,
bridges & at custom-houses have to be paid by the travellers &
are separate from the price of the courses.
Costs.
The payment for travelling post was calculated
by "posts" or "stages", the distances between two stations or relays. They
differed in each country:
England: ................ 8.0 km, 5 English
miles, or 1 "(post-)stage".
France and Holland: 9.0 km, 2 lieues / French
miles, or 1 "poste".
Russia: ................ 10.7 km, 10 versts, or
1 post.
Italy: ................... 12.0 km, 8 Italian
miles, or 1 "posta".
Germany: ............ 15.0 km, 2 German miles,
or 1 "Post".
Example: when the real distance between
two post stations (the post-stage) in France was 3 miles, instead of the
usual 2, one had to pay for "one and a half posts". Nugent states (vol.IV,p.17)
: "The post-stages are seldom above one post and a half, or two posts long."
Exceptions: Holland and the countries
in the north of Germany calculated in their miles.
To give an idea of the costs
involved, these distances have been converted into kilometres and the prices
into a single currency (here the English Penny (d.) of the eighteenth
century which had about the same purchasing power like the Euro in 2002
(cf "Currencies").
Thus, a seat in a stage coach cost
between 1 and 2 Pence per kilometre, and the hire of one post horse from
1.38 to 3.33 d., according to the country.
This was very expensive: for only
2 kilometres in a German stage coach, one had in 1766 to pay about
as much as for a kind of "Big Mac" in Hase's cook-shop in Berlin, namely
2.70 d.
(cf again "Currencies", costs in Berlin).
Today (April 2002),
for the same price as for a real Big Mac (2.70 Euro), one can use the German
railway over 19 kilometres; or one can buy in Germany enough petrol for
a small car to travel about 40 kilometres.
Casanova,
who most of the time had to hire 4 post horses with his travelling carriages,
would on the average have only been able to travel 350 metres for that
account of money (2.7 d.)...
Six
thousand Posthorses.
Until
1774 (period of the memoirs), when using the services of the travelling
or "driving post" (in German: Fahrpost), Casanova
took stage coaches only 22.3 per cent of the total distance, while for
77.7
per cent he travelled posting (German term: Extra-Post), that
means with his own (C 1-14), hired (L), or his friends' (K) carriages,
hiring post horses.
Extra-post travellers could additionally use post roads where stage coach
lines did not operate, but which had a mail service.
In those times posting was the most comfortable, but also the most expensive,
method of travelling, equivalent today to flying in a private aeroplane.
Altogether
(that means until 1798), in his own or hired travelling carriages,
Casanova
covered 30,665 kilometres.
On average, he had to take 3.6 posthorses which were exchanged after -
again on average - 18 kilometres. Thus, he paid about 250,000 Pence (converted)
when changing horses 1,704 times for 6,134 of those post horses...
Costs for 1 Posthorse.
English Pence (d.)
France (Liste générale, 1781): per post
25 sols; per km: .........................................................
1.38
Ecclesiastical State, Parma, Milan (Nemeitz, 1726):
per post 4 Paoli; per km: ....................... 1.92
Venice (Mead, 1740): per post 4 French livres;
per km: ......................................................... 3.33
Tuscany (Smollett, 1764): per post 3 Paoli; per
km: .............................................................. 1.50
Prussia (Nicolai, 1769): per mile 9 grosses incl.
postilion; per km: .......................................... 2.16
Austria & Bohemia (Nugent, 1756): 45 creitzers
per stage,
and 20 cr. to the postilion; per km
...................................................................................
2.16
Franconia, Suabia, Rhine-countries (Nugent, 1756):
60 cr.
plus 20 cr. to the postilion; per
km ...................................................................................
2.64
Netherlands (Mead, 1792): per English mile 5 pence
incl. postilion; per km ............................ 3.12
(average per km: 2.28)
.
Stage-Wagons and Stage-Coaches.
To distinguish between simple open carriages
("wagons") and more comfortable closed carriages ("coaches").
1 seat in the "Newberry flying stage coach" (The Daily Post,
27-4-1727)
London - Newberry 9 Shillings;
./. 100 km = per km: ........................................................
1.08
1 seat in the (large freight) "coche" (Nugent, 1756)
Paris
- Versailles 25 sols; ./. 20 = per km: ... 0.62
1 seat in the "stage-coach" (Nugent, 1756) Paris -
Lyons 75 livres; ./. 460 = per km: ................ 1.63
1 seat in the "ordinary post-waggon" (Nugent, 1756) in
Germany
"somewhat
less than 2 pence every English mile",
plus 2 grosses for the postilion per post; per km: .......... 1.49
ditto, Prussia, per German mile (Nicolai, 1769):
6 grosses; per km ........................................... 1.49
1 seat in the "post-waggon" (Nugent, 1756) Rotterdam
- Antwerp 9 gilders 9 stivers; per km: ... 1.86
Carriers.
A carrier was called in France "voiturin", in
Italy "vetturino" (or Procaccio in Venice) and in Germany "Landkutscher".
Everywhere in Europe carriers complemented the services of the post stations.
They were not allowed to hire post horses but had always to use the same
mules or horses; in consequence their speed was very slow.
Venice (J C Goethe, 1740): 2 persons including food,
per day
and about 50 kilometers, 1 Sequin;
per km: .............................................. 2.22
Piedmont (Casanova,
1762): 2 persons, Geneva - Mont Cenis
(expensive!) - Turin 8 Louis d'or;
per km: ................................................ 6.00
Hired Carriages.
Travelling carriages and horses were usually
hired from post-stations, and town carriages from private entrepreneurs.
France (Casanova, 1763):
basic price (without horses) Paris - Lyons 144 Francs; per km: ........
3.13
Paris (Martyn, before 1770): Hire for a town coach
per month 12 Guineas; per day: ............... 96.00
Rome (Nugent, 1756): Hire of a "coach and a pair
of horses" per month 11 Pistols; per day: ... 66.00
Cambiatura.
The Cambiatura was a system in use in north and
middle Italy whereby Ministers of the Post, accorded travellers who requested
it, the privilege to save on costs by hiring post carriages which, to the
discomfort of the traveller, had to be exchanged at every stage. In Venice
this system was known as the "Bollettino". Casanova's friend Simone Stratico
stated (p.66) that he saved one third of the usual fees in Milan in 1770.
If postillons were required, they had to be paid for out of a traveller's
own purse.
This privilege began a long tradition; up until 1991
tourists travelling by motorcar in Italy could buy in their own country
credit notes for petrol subsidized by the Italian Government.
Tuscany (Smollett, 1764): per post and 2 horses 10
Paoli; per km: .................................... 5.0
Piedmont (Smollett, 1764): ditto, 5 1/2 livres;
per km: ..................................................... 4.6
Venice (Sharp, 1765): per post and 4 horses 7
shillings 3 pence; with 2 horses, per km: ...... 3.6
Taxis.
Carriages and their coachmen for hire, licensed
by the city governments. They were called e.g. hackneys, fiacres or Droschkes.
First established in Rome at the end of the 16th century (Wackernagel,
in: Treue, p. 213), after a few decades they also appeared
in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and many other cities.
Paris (Casanova, 1759):
fiacre (no specification) 24 sols = ................................. 12.0
Berlin (Nicolai, 1766): "Rate of the hired [hackney-]
coaches or Fiacres":
"For a ride within the towns of Berlin, Cölln and
Werder": 4 Gr. = ....................... 7.2
From here in the nearest suburbs: 5 Gr. = ...........................................................
9.0
Waiting period: 1. hour: 8 Gr. = .......................................................................
14.4
2. and further hour: 4 Gr. = ...............................................................................
7.2
[as comparison: waiting period in 2002: Euro 18,- per hour]
Purchase of Carriages.
Paris & Calais (Smollett, 1763): a second-hand
travelling
coach: 35 Guineas ......................... 8,400
Lyons (Casanova,
1763): a second-hand two-wheeled French
Chaise de Poste: 40 Louis
d'or .. 9,600
Rome (Nemeitz, 1725): a new, simple sedia
(two-wheeled "Italian chaise"): 30 Scudi ............... 1,800
Cesena / Bologna (Casanova,
1749): a second-hand
English Post-Chariot:
200 Roman Sequins =
....................................................................................................
21,600
Bologna (Casanova,
1772): a second-hand (English?)
coupé: 300 Roman Scudi ....................
18,000
Geneva (Casanova,
1762): a second-hand English Post-Chariot: 100 Louis d'or,
plus a coach worth about 6,000 d.
..................................................................................
30,000
Berlin (Nicolai, 1781): a new travelling "Vienna
Carriage", a four-wheeled
four-seater, open: 70 Ducats
............................................................................................
8,400
Mainz (Casanova,
1783): a second-hand four-wheeled and two-seater chaise: 5 Louis
d'or ...... 1,200
London (Goodwin, 1756 - 1799): new Post-Chaises
and Post-Chariots,
with basic equipment: prices around
100 Guineas .............................................................
24,000
luxury model: at most 200 Guineas
.................................................................................
48,000
London (Lamberg [Marr 2-71], 1790): State-coach
for the Empress
Katharina II, made by John Hatchett: 6.000 Rubel
............................................................ 324.000
London (La Roche, 1785): State-Coach for
the Nabob of Arcot,
made by Hatchett: 5,000 Guineas ...................................................................................
1,200,000
Rich and Poor Private
Carriage Travellers.
A rather rare method of travelling was
always using the same carriage-horse(s). In this way, travelling very slowly,
Mozart's most famous librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, and his wife
Nancy
arrived at Dux in 1792, to see their old friend Casanova.
Together they drove to near Teplice where the carriage broke down and had
to be sold. Casanova acted as agent achieving a price of 60 piastres (3,600
d.), keeping back for himself a commission of 2 Sequins or 6% (220 d.)
to pay for his return journey.
(Da Ponte continues (p.122 f.)
: "He added, because he would not be able to give me back the two Sequins,
just as he could not repay his old debts of some hundreds of florins [some
3,000 d.], he would like to give me, in thanks for that, three pieces of
advice which were of more value than all the treasures in the world.")
In complete contrast, Casanova's
master at Dux, the horse-mad Count Joseph Charles von Waldstein,
used to travel between Prague and Vienna in 1796. In doing so he did not
only rely on post-stages but additionally could fall back on stages
of his own which involved the use of 36 horses. This was a practical
measure for quick driving because - as another friend of Casanova,
the eighteen year old Prince Charles Joseph von Clary - Aldringen(photo:
M Leeflang) of Teplice, wrote in his diary* on 23rd June
1796 - the Count was on the road with two coaches harnessed to six and
two horses.
However, even that did not reach the height of luxury travel. Three days
later (26th June) Clary noted in his diary:
"We set out from Prague at nine thirty.
At Schlan we dined; there we met the cook of Madame [Countess
Wilhelmine] de Lichtenau, who prepared
the meal for her. Neither Semiramis nor Cleopatra travelled with such a
display like Madame de L. She needed 18 horses at each stage; her
cook and a courier always riding ahead, because she must find everywhere
a meal like she had at home. Her cook dished us up some petits plats
parfaits, de biscuits et d'oranges. She is on her way from Italy where
she had spent almost a year, until she thought it prudent not to wait in
Venice for the arrival of the French [Army under General Napoleon
Bonaparte], but to return to Berlin. In Vienna she stayed
eight days. It is said that the King [Frederic William II. of Prussia]
sent her for the return journey 26,000 Thalers [1,404,000 d.]."
(Photo: The "Prussian Pompadour", Wilhelmine Countess of Lichtenau.
Painting (detail) by Angelika Kaufmann, Naples 1795/96. From: E Cyran,
Preußisches Rokoko, Berlin 1979. Photo: PG.)
------------------------------------------
* Lolo. Le Journal du prince Charles Joseph Clary- Aldringen. Ed. by
M. Leeflang, Utrecht 1995.
Speeds.
Only on one occasion did Casanova
complain about a bad road; that was between Magdeburg and Berlin when he
was angry about the loss of time. In contrast, he praised the "excellent"
roads in France and Italy, which enabled him to travel fast. Driving day
and night in his own carriage, he covered up to 240 kilometres in 24 hours.
Stage-wagons were much slower. The
quick ones achieved a speed of, at most, 5 km per hour, the slowest only
2 km/h.
As a rule of thumb I propose a comparison:
Private drivers, who were on the road 12 hours a day, covered as
much or as little ground as we would today in one hour - then as
nowadays, the speed depended on the road conditions, the carriage, the
money and other individual factors.
Roads.
Four countries had some highways
(causeways, chaussées; fastened artificial roads): France, England,
Italy, and all the United Netherlands (Holland) which had many highways,
together with a great network of waterways. Other countries began chaussée
building only at the end of the century, or later.
Driving on unmade roads was often
dangerous because of the ruts caused by the wheels. Casanova
wrote (HL,vol.VIII,p.237) :
"For my part, accustomed to being overturned, I suffered
no damage. It depends on the position one assumes. Don Ciccio may have
hurt his arm because he put it outside [the door-window]."
As today, on many motorways, it was
necessary to pay a toll/turnpike for using the roads.
Alpine Passes.
In the Alps, the first road over
a pass, which was broad enough and not too steep for carriages, was built
in 1387. This was the Roman Septimer Pass near St. Moritz which connected
Chiavenna (or Milan) with Chur (the Romans had excellent carriage roads
but only mule tracks over the high passes).
Casanova
crossed five passes in different parts of the Alps:
year* name
height (meters) connections
(Casanova's crossings)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1728 .. Semmering ...................... 900
.... Vienna - Graz (3)
1772 .. Brenner ........................ 1,374
.... Innsbruck - Bolzano (2)
1782 .. Tenda ........................... 1,871
.... Nice - Turin (1)
1803 .. Mont Cenis ..................
2,083
.... Lyons - Turin (6)
1905 .. Grand Saint Bernard .... 2,473
.... Lausanne - Turin (1)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[* year of road-building]
Apart from the Semmering (and the Brenner
in 1783), Casanova found only mule-tracks
on the passes. Travellers usually let themselves be carried by "mountaineers",
horses or mules. Stage coaches or other commercial wagons, were left back
at the foot of the mountain. Private carriages were taken to pieces and
transported over the pass; Casanova went through
this routine on six different occasions.
* * *
The Mont Cenis.
For thousands of years Mont Cenis was the most important pass of the Western
Alps. It was considered the easiest to cross (cf Michel de
Montaigne, in the year 1581) and for this reason Grand Tourists
almost always chose this pass on their journey from France (Lyons) to Italy
(Turin).
Already Hannibal's army took
this pass (cf Josias Simler, Die Alpen, Zürich 1574,
ed. by Deutscher Alpenverein 1984, Carta Verlag, p. 88 ff.).
The age of the "carried chairs" and
dismantling of carriages came to an end when Napoleon I allowed a road
to be constructed, which remains to this day.
(Photo: Two "mountaineers" carrying a tourist down to Lanslebourg.
-
Drawing by J. Keats, about 1780, from: Brilli, Il Viaggio in Italia.)
Then, in 1869, the Mont Cenis Narrow
Gauge Railway, imported from England (Fell Company), between Susa and
Modane, was opened - the only railway ever built over such a high alpine
pass. Only two years later, the construction of the present railway line
between Lyons and Turin was completed and the trains passed through the
nearby tunnel of Fréjus. This quicker route immediately led to the
bankrupty of the mountain railway - a remarkable example of bad planning.
Returning to the old "golden" days
of travelling, I should like to show how I imagine - following my own experience
- travellers crossed the Alps using the mule track over the Mont Cenis.
By the time they reached Lanslebourg,
the last post station on the west side, travellers had already been climbing
slowly along the river Arc to a height of 1,400 meters. From there to the
top
of the pass (2,083 m) they were either carried, sitting comfortably
in a chair, by two or more mountaineers, or they had to walk a further
six kilometres which took about one and a half hours. Travelling in the
opposite direction, when there was snow, they could enjoy a fast sledge
ride of seven or eight minutes down the mountain; many travellers returned
to the top to repeat this exhilarating experience. Beyond the top of the
pass was a high valley, seven kilometres in length, containing a
post station, a hospice and, at the end, the village of Grand Croix
(1,850 m) - the only settlement which did not disappear into the waters
of the reservoir. From there travellers began the descent of eight kilometres,
following the creek Cenischia via the little village of Ferrera Cenisio
(1,450 m) to the post station at Novalesa (830 m). This stretch
of the way was not so comfortable as numerous rocks did not allow the use
of sledges. At Novalesa, travellers again boarded a stage-coach, their
carrier's chaise, or their own reassembled coach, and drove to the nearby
town of Susa, the first proper Italian town with a Roman arch and
other ancient buildings.
The village of Grand Croix, the only surviving
settlement on the Mont Cenis. In the background is the wall of the reservoir.
- Photo: PG.
Ships.
Antonio Canal was working on his painting "Il
Bacino di San Marco" (here a cutting) just at the time when nine year-old
Casanova
set off for his first journey. This happened on a postboat called
Il
Burchiello, going on board at the Piazzetta, crossing the lagoon to
Fusina and from there being towed (drawn by horses) on the river Brenta
to Padua. There was no Grand-Tourist who did not praise this comfortable
conveyance in his letters. - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. From:
Briganti, Glanzvolles Europa. Photo: PG.
.
Il Burchiello today. As in Casanova's
time, passengers can enjoy the view of the magnificent villas on the riverbanks
of the Brenta. Here the boat is passing Mira on its way to Padua (Photo
left: PG). - The lock of Dolo, painting by Antonio
Canal. Today the house in the lock contains a restaurant.
A model of a felucca, in the Museu Maritim
at Barcelona. This was a coastal ship used everywhere on the Mediterranean
Sea. Casanova took some between Antibes, Genoa
and Lerici. - Photo: PG.
As a cadet in the Venetian Army, the sixteen
year-old Casanova voyaged as far as Constantinople
on board a galley. - An exact copy of the galley used by
Don Juan d'Austria at the sea-battle of Lepanto (1571). Museu Maritim,
Barcelona. Photo: Pere Vivas.
German Ferry. Cutting of a view of Speyer
on Rhine by Matthaeus Merian, about 1640. - Photo: PG.
Draw-boat and stage coach meet on a bridge
in France. E. g. in 1760, Casanova took such
a boat on the rivers Isère and Rhone from Grenoble to Avignon (his
travelling carriage was on board, too). - From: L'Indicateur Fidèle,
Paris 1764 (cutting). Deutsches Postmuseum Frankfurt a.M. - Photo: PG.
...
Between Calais and Dover, Casanova
used or chartered postboats, also called packetboats. -
Picture
in black and white: "King George Packet Boat (Dover - Calais)", about
1650, model at Dover Museum. / In Colour (full size and detail):
"Dover-Calais Packetboat about 1815", recent painting and copyright by
the English artist John Michael Groves RSMA (Royal Society of Marine Artists)
. Thanks to Hector Zerbino and Derek Oakes for sending these
excellent pictures.
Continuation: Travelling Carriages (Part
III)
Copyright by Pablo Günther, Hergensweiler
2001, 2007.
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