Phaeton (carriage) The Keystone Cops drove phaetons, either Model Ts or Model As. In Frances Burney's novel, "Evelina" (1778), young gentlemen race their phaetons on the public highways of Clifton, near Bristol, not without incident. In Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", Mr Collins says of Lady Catherine De Bourgh's daughter, "she is perfectly amiable, and often condescends to drive by my humble abode in her little phaeton and ponies." In Anne Brontë's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" (1848), Mr. Huntingdon drives a "light phaeton" that comes "bowling merrily up the lawn" (Ch. 18). The sporty character of the carriage reflects Huntingdon's devil-may-care
HMS Phaeton (1782) June - "Poisson Volante", of ten guns, and "Général Washington". On 27 November "Phaeton" and were among the six vessels of a squadron that captured the 28-gun "Blonde" off Ushant. In February 1794 "Phaeton" was paid off, but the next month Captain William Bentinck recommissioned her. During the battle of the Glorious First of June, "Phaeton" came to the aid of the dismasted . While doing so, "Phaeton" exchanged broadsides with the French ship-of-the-line "Impetueux. "Phaeton" suffered three men killed and five wounded. She was the only one of the support vessels there to suffer casualties. In 1847 the Admiralty