Gig (carriage)

A gig, also called chair or chaise, is a light, two-wheeled sprung cart pulled by one horse.

Gig carts are constructed with the driver's seat sitting higher than the level of the shafts. Traditionally, a gig is more formal than a village cart or a meadowbrook cart, and more comfortable, usually being sprung. A light gig can be used for carriage racing. OED gives the date of first known reference to a horse-drawn gig as 1791, and they were ubiquitous by the early 1800s. There are several types of gig, including:

Gigs travelling at night would normally carry two oil lamps with thick glass, known as gig-lamps.

The meaning of the term 'gig' is transferred from the deprecatory term for a 'flighty girl' and subsequently indicates anything which whirls, or is dangerous or unpredictable. Contemporary literature frequently recounted romantic tales of spills and hairbreadth scrapes from these vehicles, but is equally fulsome on the fearful thrill experienced in driving them.

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