Phaeton (carriage) "His companion went into seventeen shops — he amused himself with counting them — and accumulated, at the bottom of the phaeton, a pile of bundles that hardly left the young Englishman a place for his feet. As she had no groom nor footman, he sat in the phaeton to hold the ponies." Georgette Heyer, the Regency romance novelist, frequently wrote about sporting gentlemen driving their phaetons. Some of her heroines were also notable whips, such as Hero from "Friday's Child" who gets into a scrape by agreeing to participate in a 'Lady's Race' in her phaeton. Phaeton (carriage) A
Phaeton body rigid roof could be added before a drive in preparation for inclement weather, and side curtains or screens could be installed once the roof was in place. This was mainly temporary and partial relief rather than the more permanent, watertight protection offered by a convertible. As a result, a phaeton was much lighter than the sturdier, weather-ready convertible. Since the body was entirely open, it was easy to add or remove an extra row of seating where space had been left in the original construction. A phaeton differs from a convertible in having no winding or sliding windows in the