756 ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 



thence as far as Bolton in Lancashire. He gets goods sent 

 from London to Smithills and Gawthorp, his two country 

 houses, from London to Halifax, and from Stourbridge fair 

 to Preston. Similarly Lord Pembroke at Worksop has goods 

 sent from London to Huddersfield, from London to Worksop, 

 and from London to Chesterfield. There is indeed informa- 

 tion which proves that, in very early times, common carriers 

 plied between very distant places. 



There is no reason to believe that, except near London, any 

 attempt was made to construct new roads. On the contrary, 

 it is probable, almost certain, that the roads in use had been 

 traversed from very remote times, and that quite as many 

 miles of old roads have been enclosed, as miles of new roads 

 have been constructed. A careful examination of private 

 Acts of Parliament would perhaps supply any student with 

 exact information as to the mileage of new roads laid out 

 and made since the legislature began to pass private Acts for 

 turnpike purposes. And I imagine that such a search would 

 result in proving that a very small percentage of existing 

 highways in the country districts has been' added to those 

 ancient roads, the maintenance and repair of which was a 

 duty very properly imposed on the landowner, because 

 without such roads his property would be inaccessible and 

 its products unsaleable. I have indeed little doubt that after 

 the dissolution of the monasteries, and the acquisition of 

 their lands by grantees of the Crown, many highways 

 gradually fell out of repair, for motives which induce the 

 keeping of roads in order are as necessary as the machinery 

 for enforcing the repair is. But of all the liabilities which 

 ought to fall on landowners, none is more obviously just 

 than the maintenance of the highways, as long at least as 

 land yields a rent, for no one gets so much benefit from good 

 roads as the owner of cultivated land does. Even if one 

 considers the use which common carriers made of them, it 

 seems that persons who lived in country places, and had to 

 go to fairs, large towns, and markets for everything beyond 



