120 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



time, energy and money for what was substantially the 

 public benefit. As a result the old form of way held its 

 own throughout England, though here and there was 

 found a new type which arose in- this century the 

 causeway-road, consisting of the old belt of rough grass- 

 land with a stone causeway about a yard and a half 

 broad. On this causeway travellers rode and pack- 

 horses tramped, whilst on the grass the waggons ploughed 

 their way and the stock of all sorts straggled along to 

 some great town or market. During all this period the 

 country's internal trade grew steadily. To meet this 

 increase and the difficulties of transport, canals, then 

 new to England, were extended throughout the country 

 until the advent of railways in the XlXth century : 

 they greatly reduced cost of transit and gave con- 

 siderable impulse to the trade in agricultural produce 

 of the districts they served. But the roads remained 

 the main arteries of distribution : and the increase of 

 traffic tended to make them worse. Parliament devised 

 two remedies. The first, a singularly ineffective one, 

 the regulation by statute J of the size of cartwheels and 

 the number of horses to be harnessed to each waggon, 

 was attempted in order to reduce the damage to the 

 roads done by carts and waggons. The second remedy 

 was the setting up of bodies to put and keep in order 

 some particular road or the roads of a district. These 

 bodies, called Turnpike Trusts, were administered by 

 trustees appointed by the government. 



Turnpike trusts 2 were first formed early in the 

 XVIIIth century, and increased until ultimately the 

 number of such bodies reached over 1,000, with responsi- 

 bility for some 23,000 miles of road. They had commonly 

 the widest powers to make or to close roads and to regu- 

 1 See Appendix, p. 173. 2 Ibid. pp. 173, 174. 



