INTRODUCTION. ix 



town of Gosport at one o'clock in the morning, 

 and arrived at the Golden Cross, Charing Cross, 

 at eight in the evening ; thus occupying nineteen 

 hours in travelhng eighty miles ; being at the rate 

 of rather more than four miles an hour. This 

 journey is now performed in eight hours. 



We are quite ready to admit, that this immense 

 change in the rate of travelling, viz. — from four 

 miles to ten in the hour ought to be — in a great 

 measure, laid to the account of the great im- 

 provement which has taken place in the state of 

 our turnpike roads, which in those days, but too 

 often merited the description given of that between 

 Preston and Wigan by Arthur Young, in his 

 Tour in the North of England," published in 

 1770.=^ 



* " I know not," writes Mr. Young, *' in the whole range of lan- 

 guage, terms sufficiently expressive to describe this infernal road. 

 To look over a map, and perceive that it is a principal one, not only 

 to some towns, but even whole counties, one would naturally conclude 

 it to be, at least, decent ; but let me most seriously caution all tra- 

 vellers who may accidentally purpose to travel this terrible county, to 

 avoid it as they would the devil, for a thousand to one but they break 

 their necks or their limbs by overthrows or breakings down. They 

 will here meet ^vith ruts, which I actually measured, four feet deep, 

 and floating with mud, only from a wet summer ; what, therefore, 

 must it be after a winter ? The only mending it receives in places, is the 

 tumbling in loose stones, which serve no other purpose but joltmg the 

 carriage in a most intolerable manner. These are not merely opinions, 

 but facts, for I actually passed three carts broken down in these 

 eighteen miles of execrable memory." 



( c 



