Victorian transport

[Davran]

Can anyone help, please? I'm trying to find out what exactly a "Taglioni Omnibus" was. It was hired to take a party of 18 people on a picnic in 1852.

I have found an online website called Probert Encyclopaedia which talks about the Windsor stagecoach called 'Taglioni', but from pictures that one would not have been big enough for the party. I imagine it must have been like the London Omnibus mentioned on the same site, which was a 22-seater drawn by three horses.

Any help much appreciated.

[Peter Goodey]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a taglioni was " kind of overcoat in use in the first half of the 19th c".

[Davran]

Yes, Peter, I got that reference as well. Maybe that was what you had to wear when you went on the omnibus!

In the journal I am transcribing the father (who works in the City) comes home one day covered in mud where he has fallen off the omnibus. I have a vision of all the commuters trying to stuff themselves on there like they do on the tube trains.

Glenys has sent me a PM giving a website with a picture of a 1900 omnibus, which must have been something similar to the one hired in 1852, but I can find no other references to Taglioni.

[Jan1954]

Hi Davran.

Just had a rummage around and found Marie Taglioni (1804 -84) A noted Italian ballerina, who was all the rage in the 1830s. Possibly the source of the vehicle's name?

Finbar

Certainly her or her family for the overcoat.

I would not be surprised if, as Davran says, that was what men wore when they went on the omnibus - especially if they were sitting outside! Perhaps the drivers wore them and hence the name?

However, there was a Fabio Taglioni (about a century later ) who was Ducati's Chief Engineer, designing motorbikes. (Great bikes, Ducatis...) So maybe he came from an engineering family and they designed a specific omnibus...

Okay, I'm rambling...

[Davran]

[Davran]

The London Transport Museum website has a picture of a Shillibeer omnibus, which was the first one used in 1829. I have emailed them to see if they can shed any light on the Taglioni.

[Geoffers]

Can anyone help, please? I'm trying to find out what exactly a "Taglioni Omnibus" was. It was hired to take a party of 18 people on a picnic in 1852.

It's not clear from the above, was this an omnibus owned by a Mr Taglioni, or a company of that name? If so, does it appear in any directories (carriers and coaches are often listed), or the London Gazette - or does the reference you have suggest this is a form of omnibus called a 'taglioni'? - which is a new one on me.

[Penny Gallo]

it sounds as though it would have been a double-decker one, with seats up on an uncovered top. This was an area reserved - for obvious sartorial and modesty reasons - for men, until the late 19th century when the ladder became a staircase at the back of the vehicle. To us, it all seems extremely dangerous but people were used to clinging on the outside of the stage-coach, and the earliest passenger trains had open carriages - they were obviously a hardy lot!

I once saw a humorous drawn carte-de-visite with a lady having had an embarrassing mishap, catching one of the rings of her hooped 'crinoline' on the door handle of the omnibus and falling to reveal a lot of leg.

The only mention I found of a Taglioni with transport connections was a 1920s bus company.

[Davran]

To put the matter in context, Geoffers, I will quote from the journal:

"there were just eighteen of us altogether Mama included, though the omnibus was a Taglioni and rather large yet two gentlemen would ride on the step Narcissus spread himself out on the roof among the hampers"

I had assumed it was a 'type' of omnibus, but I suppose it could be a Mr Taglioni who owned the larger type of omnibus and hired them out. From the description in the journal it sounds as if there was plenty of seating without the men having to ride outside. The picture I found of the early (1829) Shillibeer omnibus (22 seats) shows a convex roof, so no hampers or people could have been safely stored on top. The one in the journal also had a 'boot' which filled up with rainwater. "Narcissus" seems to be a nickname for a goodlooking young man.

Hopefully, the London Transport Museum may be able to shed some light on this.

[mikejee]

I am not sure of the relevence, but in "An Old coachman's chatter" by Edward Corbett, pub 1890, he states that he remembers in 1837 or 38, seeing a "remarkably well appoimted coach" starting from the white horse cellars and going to Windsor. It attracted a crowd of people, and "was named the "Taglioni" after a favourite danseuse of those days. " "It was painted blue, with a red undercarriage, gthe family colours of Lord chesterfield, who horsed it, in conjunction with Count d'Orsay and Prince Bathyani.
The book can be read at: https://
openlibrary.org/b/OL7199041M