The Sedan Chair

While reading an assignment from John Urry's "Mobilities" (a great book), I came across this concept of "sedan chairs."  The context of the reading is about the social history of "walking."  According to Urry's history, walking from place to place, especially in urban areas becomes more popular in the mid-eighteenth century as cities begin to smoothly pave their streets.  Prior to this, the streets were muddy and messy and filled with many nice elements that you wouldn't want to smell like.  If they were paved, it was typically with cobblestones that had been rutted from thoroughfares - this wasn't exactly the easiest way to travel especially if your ankles weren't properly supported.  However, as streets were more smoothly paved with concrete mixes, walking became easier and more accepted for most class of people save for one - the elite.  These folks had walkers who carried them across those cobbled streets above all the crap so to speak.  Urry suggests that it was the elderly and woman that used these sedan chairs.  The chairs sat in the hallways of the great houses, typically near the doorway, so the users could simply walk over, sit down, and wait for the walker to come over enclose the chair and pick it up to walk to wherever.  This covered chair was referred to as a sedan. 

In about 1929 or so, the first car was built with seats in the back that had direct access for the passengers, but no driving was involved (at least not physically), so they were called "sedans."  Possibly a connection?  Also - I wonder if those chairs I've seen in my Mom's living room, near the doorway, that seemingly have no purpose, but that I'm not allowed to sit on, are also some remnant of the sedan chair age...