What the heck is a chamber-horse?

And during this last read through, I came upon that mention of a chamber-horse that sounds so strange. You might recall that the West Indian heiress (and invalid) Miss Lambe apparently has no need of milk from the milch ass (donkey) that Lady Denham keeps at Sanditon House. Lady Denham is that old lady we’re all acquainted with, the woman with loads of money who begrudges every dime spent and is always angling to make more. She does learn that Miss Lambe’s physician has advised the young lady to take exercise on a chamber-horse, and Lady Denham has one of those, the property of her first husband, the much overlooked Mr. Hollis. And so she hopes to hire out her chamber-horse to Miss Lambe.

So what is it? Apparently it’s little more than a wooden chair with many stacked leather cushions. In fact, it’s stacked so high it looks impossible to sit on, as you can see from the photo. It’s called a horse because you can bounce up and down on it like you were sitting on a horse or one of those giant rubber posture balls trendy office places employ to avoid being sued by their employees who complain of repetitive stress injuries.

I think you definitely have to think of the English style of riding that involves posting, that is rising up in the stirrups to avoid slamming into the back of a trotting horse. If you’ve gone on a trail ride at a dude ranch with the horse just walking, there’s no need to post, but your backside and your horse’s back will appreciate posting when trotting.

Chamber-horses were often used when in bad weather, as reported here. And these pictures show a little more clearly how the stacked cushions made a sort of bellows and also the upraised posts that the sitter could grasp, presumably offering some exercise for arms and legs.