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 (1883) steam steering gear broke down on 25 May. The "Phaeton" left Plymouth on 27 May to continue her cruise. By June 1887 was serving in the Mediterranean. In her initial months of service, the "Phaeton" suffered from a series of break-downs of her engines. For instance in one accident a piston-rod broke due to a manufacturing defect, and when it broke, cracked one of the cylinders. The January 1887 Navy List listed her commissioned and warrant officers as follows: "Phaeton" was recommissioned at Malta by Captain Reginald N. Custance on 18 March 1890. The January 1887 Navy List listed her