The Georgian Chamber Horse

by Cheryl Leigh

For the Georgian gentleman, riding was a favorite activity to keep fit. But what if the weather turned inclement, as British weather was inclined to do? Those fortunate to own a chamber horse had the perfect solution for indoor exercise.

Chamber Horse 1790-1820 from the V&A

The chamber horse was probably the first prototype for today's home exercise machines. This device, which resembled a concertina, consisted of a raised leather seat that contained tiers of springs separated by boards. The user would sit on the chair, grip the arms and bounce up and down in simulation of horse riding.

George Cheyne (1671-1743), the pioneering Scottish physician, believed exercise helped cure various ailments. He recommended the machine to his patient, the writer Samuel Richardson, who suffered from 'spleen' (hypochondria), an eighteenth-century form of depression. Cheyne happily reported that Richardson could still read, direct servants or dictate letters while exercising on the chamber horse - much like many twenty-first century writers use treadmill desks.



George Cheyne 1671-1743

The first advertisement for a chamber horse appeared in the London Daily Post and General Advertiser in March 1739 with Henry Marsh of Clare Market claiming to be the inventor. The machines' popularity continued as shown by Thomas Sheraton's illustration in 1802 in his Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, and in the 1823 edition of the London Chair-maker's Book of Prices, which detailed how to make a chamber horse.

Most chamber horses were kept in bedrooms, but John Wesley liked to keep his in his dining room. Even Lady Denham, a character in Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon, mentions a chamber horse: "There is the sea, and the downs, and my milch asses: and I have told Mrs. Whitby that if anybody enquires for a chamber horse, they may be supplied at a fair rate (poor Mr. Hollis's chamber horse, as good as new); and what can people want more?" (Memoir of Jane Austen by James Edward Austen-Leigh, 1871.)

During the eighteenth century, exercise played an increasingly significant role in the maintenance of health. The chamber horse and rocking horse were designed for adults and children with this in mind. George Cheyne blamed the rich food and high life of many of his well-to-do patients as the cause of the "English Malady", a type of nervous disorder. Cheyne himself suffered depression due to his weight of 32 stone (203 kg). He went on a strict diet with the result he promoted physical activity and a vegetarian diet as a treatment for melancholy. He believed the body and spirit were linked and diet and exercise, such as using a chamber horse, was the best treatment for a range of illnesses.

This video from Edward and Eva Pinto's Bygone Collection, shows how to ride a chamber horse. The actual section starts at 01:16, but there are several fascinating items throughout the clip.

Sources:

Gloag, John. A Short Dictionary of Furniture. London: George

Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1952

Edwards, Clive D. Eighteenth-Century Furniture. Manchester:

Manchester University Press, 1996

BBC Radio 4. George Cheyne and His Work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/longview/longview_20031007_readings.shtml

GEORGIAN PORTRAIT ART by Maggi Andersen

  

Art is a passion of mine, having been brought up breathing the smells of varnish and oil paint as my mother pursued her love of painting. The work of two artists makes an appearance in my Georgian romance, THE RELUCTANT MARQUESS. One is Sir Thomas Gainsborough, who paints Charity’s portrait.

A family portrait for the gentry was important in the Georgian period to show a man’s wealth and position in society.  Lands and houses often featured along with favorite pets in a formal studied pose.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrews about 1750 Thomas Gainsborough Lord George Murray, c. 1700

Sir Thomas Gainsborough had a preference for painting landscapes although he began as a portrait painter.

Thomas Gainsborough Le Menage, unknown lady and gentleman in a landscape. Paris, Louvre (dated from the middle 1750's)

Romanticism is a phenomenon which began around 1750 and ended about 1850, coming between Neoclassicism and Realism. There was a marked shift in emphasis from reason to feeling, from calculation to intuition, from objective nature to subjective emotion.

Thomas Gainsborough The Honorable Mrs. Graham, c. 1775

Mrs. Graham is dressed in the more formal, Rococo flamboyance of feathers and brocade, silver and crimson. Pride of birth and station is announced in every detail.  It would have been intended to grace the grand stairway of a great country house.

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Gainsborough, Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan c.1785

Gainsborough adopted the Romantic view of life and nature here. The lovely lady, dressed informally, is seated in a rustic landscape faintly reminiscent of Watteau in its soft-hued light and feathery brushwork echoed in her curly hair and the soft leafy scene in which she sits. Gainsborough did intend to add sheep to this painting to create a pastoral scene, but he died before he completed it. Here he seeks to match the unspoiled beauty of natural landscape with the natural beauty or the slight wind which is a sharp contrast to the pert sophistication of continental Rococo portraits.

Thomas Gainsborough Mrs Peter William Baker 1781

William Hogarth, Breakfast Scene form Marriage a la Mode c.1745

The other artist’s work which makes an appearance in THE RELUCTANT MARQUESS – which is a marriage of convenient story, is William Hogarth who scrutinized contemporary life with comic zest with a cynical view of a marriage of convenience in Marriage a la Mode The Tête à Tête 1745. This is the view of a young viscount arranged through the social aspirations of one parent and the need for money of the other, which is just beginning to founder. It is past noon. Husband and wife are very tired after a long night spent in each other’s company. The young nobleman keeps his hat on in his wife’s presence. His hands are sunk deep in his pockets, emptied by gambling, and the little dog sniffs suspiciously at a lace cap that protrudes from his pocket. The broken sword suggests that the master has been in a fight; an overturned chair signifies that the previous evening has been somewhat spirited. A steward, his hands full of unpaid bills, raises his eyes to heaven in despair at what this family is coming to. Hogarth mocks the Classical style of interior decoration telling a story as a writer would.

Resource: Art through the Ages, Eighth edition 1976

Author Website: http://www.maggiandersenauthor.com