Note 55 — Chapter the Tenth

Bridges Adams has an amusing passage on the question of colour. He had his own ideas upon the best colours to use on a carriage body. “For bright sunny days,” he thinks, “the straw or sulphur yellow is very brilliant and beautiful; but for the autumnal haze, the rich deep orange hue conveys the most agreeable sensations. The greens used are of innumerable tints, commencing with the yellowish olive, and gradually darkening till they are barely distinguishable from black. Neither apple green, grass green, sea green, nor any green of a bluish tint, can be used in carriage painting with good effect as a ground colour; but in some species of light carriages a pleasing effect may be produced for summer by the imitation of the variegated grasses.” Quite a poetical idea! “Blues,” he continues, “were formerly principally used as a ground colour for bodies, to contrast with a red carriage and framework. Of late very dark blues have been used as a general ground colour, and when new they are very rich, being a glazed or partially transparent colour; but they very soon become worn and faded, the least speck of dust disfiguring them. Blue is also a cold colour, and while it is unfitted for summer by reason of its easy soiling, it is unpleasant in winter, owing to its want of warmth.”