The un-sprung cart was a simple, sturdy, one-horse, two-wheeled vehicle used by roadmen, farmers and the like for small loads of relatively dense material like road metal or dung. In Australia and New Zealand, it is frequently called a dray. Elsewhere, that is a name occasionally used. The name dray is also used for a wagon.
A sprung cart, by contrast was a light, one-horse (or often, pony), two-wheeled vehicle with road springs, for the carriage of passengers on informal occasions. It was a class of vehicles with the name varying according to the body mounted on it.
Famous quotes containing the word cart:
“Mrs. Zajac knows you didn’t try. You don’t just hand in junk to Mrs. Zajac. She’s been teaching an awful lot of years. She didn’t fall off the turnip cart yesterday. She told you she was an old-lady teacher.”
—Christine Zajac, U.S. fifth-grade teacher. As quoted in Among Schoolchildren, “September” section, part 1, by Tracy Kidder (1989)