THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 121 



late traffic, and also to make levies for labour and material 

 on the parishes through which the roads passed. They 

 had also the right to erect their turnpikes or barriers at 

 various places across the roads, where tolls were collected 

 by the pikemen. Notwithstanding the formation of 

 these trusts the greater number of the roads of England 

 were little changed, for they remained under parish 

 control until the XlXth century, and the parishes could 

 not be persuaded to make new roads or even to carry 

 out effective repairs. As the turnpike trusts increased, 

 here and there in England, for the first time since 

 the withdrawal of the Romans, hard roads were to 

 be found, on which all could travel without fear of 

 accident. To these roads definite boundaries were 

 given, as the process of enclosure continued. At the 

 same time quarter sessions gave better attention to 

 the repair of the bridges that carried the principal roads. 

 Travel became easier, especially when the introduction 

 of stage coaches followed the creation of new roads. As 

 an example of this change, it is interesting to know that 

 in 1739 there was a good hard road from London to 

 Grantham, and no doubt this road was a little later 

 extended to Edinburgh, as a stage-coach service was 

 opened between London and that town in 1754. In 

 the latter part of the century the better managed trusts 

 began to appoint skilled surveyors, who built more and 

 more of these hard roads running down the centres 

 of the old grassways : whilst finally, in the XlXth 

 century, the famous roadmakers Macadam and Telford 

 appeared on the scene. 



The turnpike trust system can hardly be considered 

 a great success : there was often the grossest mis- 

 management. In many cases the trusts delegated 

 their duties : in the latter years of the century the 



