52 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



of earthenware were slung across the backs of horses or 

 donkeys, and sent off to their respective destinations. 

 They were subject to breakage and pilferage ; and often 

 the poor brutes fell down in the miry and narrow ways, 

 and a whole crateful of ware was smashed. Even 

 when the ware reached its destination, the cost of 

 transport was very heavy. The lowest charge was 

 eight shillings a ton for ten miles. The result of this 

 difficulty of transporting the ware was to restrict in 

 an immense degree the distribution and consumption 

 of the lower-priced articles in common use. The same 

 obstacles prevented the conveyance of salt, an indis- 

 pensable article, which reached almost a fabulous 

 price by the time it was sold some two or three 

 counties distant. All other articles of consumption 

 woollen, corn, coal, lime, and ironstone were con- 

 veyed in the same way, on the backs of pack-horses, 

 and thus living was rendered very expensive, and 

 agriculture and industry of all kinds were seriously im- 

 peded and hindered. 



This great evil of the want of road communica- 

 tion weighed heavily, not only upon the industry, 

 but upon the civilisation of the district ; and this fact, 

 recognised by Wedgwood at an early period of his 

 career, drew his attention to the state of the highways. 

 He took the leading part in promoting an application 

 to Parliament for powers to repair and widen the road 

 from the Red Bull at Lawton in Cheshire to the Cliff 

 Bank in Staffordshire. Such a line of road, if formed, 



