712 ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



eighteenth century trade grew rapidly, and agriculture greatly 

 prospered. The most obvious and the most attractive form of 

 remedy was to cast the cost on travellers, and the turnpike was 

 adopted, though often enough the tolls were not devoted to the 

 purpose for which they were collected. 



Tolls were always levied on markets and approaches to 

 markets. The earliest example of a road toll levied by the 

 King's authority, is said to be that of 1346, when ad valorem 

 tolls were collected for the repair of certain highways leading to 

 London (Rymer, v. 525, 575, 774). Such tolls were extended 

 to the roads from Highgate and Uxbridge in 1363. The first 

 Act of Parliament for mending a highway is 14 & 15 Hen. VIII, 

 cap. 6. In 1555, 2 & 3 Philip and Mary, cap. 8, the obligation 

 of mending its roads, and of appointing two surveyors an- 

 nually, is cast on every parish. Many such acts are found in 

 Elizabeth's reign. The first Statute by which tolls were exacted, 

 and toll-gates erected, was 15 Car. II, cap. i. But the prin- 

 cipal legislation on the subject, and the general extension of 

 the system, is in the eighteenth century, and particularly the 

 Act of 1773, 13 Geo. Ill, cap. 84. 



I have found no instance of charges incurred for the carriage 

 of letters. The conveyance of the new statutes of King's 

 College, Cambridge, in 1454, is the nearest approach to such 

 an entry. The college paid 6s. %d. for this service. It was 

 not the last revision, for we read that the statutes received the 

 latest expression of the founder's will, and were scaled in 

 ! 458-9, the occasion, doubtless, on which the followers of 

 Pccok as well as the Lollards were excluded from the benefits 

 of the foundation. On this occasion, Rotheram and another 

 fellow were sent c ad concilium Angliae ad Coventriam,' by 

 which is probably meant the famous Parliament of Nov. 20 and 

 Dec. 20, 1459, these fellows having been deputed to the duty 

 in the year Sept. 1458-Sept. 1459. In 1460, during the 

 summer between June 26 and July 8, messages are sent eight 

 times, pro novis atidiendis. It was indeed a time of anxiety 

 for the fellows of Henry's foundation, for York was preparing 



