Horse-Drawn Carriages and Sleighs: Elegant Vehicles from New England and New Brunswick

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Kings Landing Historical Settlement in New Brunswick has the largest and
most varied collection of carriages and sleighs in eastern Canada. This
attractive book documents the collection, using numerous
professional-quality colour photos and extensive captions to bring the
era of horse-powered transportation to life.

The work includes pictures of the familiar sleds, wagons, sleighs,
buggies, and carriages as well as less well-known variations, such as
the sloven, opera bus, phaeton, pung, gig, surrey, and democrat. The
brief text and captions put the vehicles in context, with details of
construction, features, and usage. Wagons, for example, took many forms:
hay, lynch pin, express, delivery, Concord, and Bronson, as well as dump
carts, casket wagons, and all-purpose farm wagons. Although the work is
based on the Kings Landing collection, much of the information is
relevant to the study of horse-drawn vehicles anywhere in Canada.

There’s a section devoted to carriage makers (both Maritime and New
England), and another on the development of a network of roads in New
Brunswick.

Although slim, the book is packed with nearly 100 photos, many
reproductions of historic documents, and masses of detail and facts. As
well as being a quality reminder of a visit to Kings Landing, it is a
great addition to any Canadian social-history collection.