654 ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



chased country produce, and supplied the conveniences which 

 the small farmer required. Both parties brought their wares 

 to market, and both had an interest in good roads and easy 

 communication. 



The bye-roads were no doubt bad, and could not be used 

 except in the summer. But the old highways, many of which 

 had remained from the days of Roman engineering, were, 

 I make no question, kept in repair, as indeed the common 

 law required that they should be kept. 



Again, it was the interest of the monastic bodies that free 

 communication should be kept up between their establish- 

 ments and the general public. As these corporations consisted 

 ordinarily of a considerable number of persons living under 

 one roof, it was important that they should have abundant 

 supply ; and as they possessed, in the same way that other 

 persons did, estates in widely distant places, it was an object 

 to them that they should have easy and convenient means 

 of visitation. Every motive, in short, was present which 

 should suggest the wisdom and utility of good and well- 

 mended roads. 



I am persuaded that these means of communication were 

 kept in far better repair before than they were after the 

 Reformation. I will not anticipate the reasons which have 

 weighed with me in arriving at such a conviction, but the 

 reader will be able to infer that so vast a social and econo- 

 mical revolution as that which confiscated most of the lands 

 and annihilated the political influence of the third estate in 

 the kingdom, must have subverted many relations which had 

 previously existed. 



Evidence of the price of carriage is twofold, as the com- 

 munication is by land or water. The former means is the 

 most important, because it can be reduced, if the evidence 

 is complete enough, to a fixed rate. 



Again, as indeed might be expected, the rate at which goods 

 were carried varied in ancient, as it does in modern times, 

 with the nature of the article sent. Thus we may anticipate 



