THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 155 



pack-horses, with cattle and stock of every description, 

 with coaches and post-chaises, and individual travellers 

 and parties on horseback or on foot. It 

 is not, therefore, surprising that the demand 

 for better roads persisted. The govern- 

 ment, anxious to get something done, put pressure on 

 the turnpike trusts, and, under the direction of Telford 

 and Macadam and their followers, good hard main roads 

 continued to be constructed throughout England. On 

 these roads, in the first half of the century, ran the swift 

 mail-coaches that took passengers and the news of the 

 world to the country towns of England. Such towns 

 as were coaching centres flourished. Their inns became 

 famous, their markets gained an additional importance, 

 and the towns themselves became the centres of social life. 

 Meanwhile the greater number of the by-roads, which 

 lay outside the operations of the trusts, remained very 

 much in their old conditions ; Parliament endeavoured 

 to relieve the parishes of their responsibility, and to 

 replace them by Highway Districts, 1 with Boards of 

 management for such roads as lay outside the turnpike 

 trusts. Later on turnpike trusts were gradually dis- 

 solved, 2 the Highway Boards or parishes taking over 

 the duties : thus the system was by degrees abolished, 

 the last turnpike being removed in the year 1895. 



The importance of the roads for transit of goods and 

 travellers was, of course, lessened with the growth of 

 the railway system in the second half of the century ; 

 and the country lost much of the social life that centred 

 round the great highways and the coaching inns. But 

 the railways had their effect in the increase of trade 

 and ease of travel ; they helped to create a social life 

 of a new character, and ultimately did much to destroy 

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



