CHAPTEE X 



HO ADS AND CANALS THROUGH STAFFORDSHIRE 



WE have had frequent occasion to allude to the roads, 

 or the absence of roads, which in those days existed in 

 central England, to the inconvenience and restriction 

 which difficulty of communication imposed upon trade 

 and manufacture, and to the eager interest which 

 Wedgwood took in the subject, not from personal 

 motives alone, but for the public good. 



In his early years the roads of Staffordshire were 

 no better than those of England generally. In some 

 respects they were worse. In Dr. Plot's time, "the 

 poor cratemen carried the wares on their backs all 

 over the country." The people were as rough as 

 the roads. When Charles Wesley visited South 

 Staffordshire in 1743, he records his visit to Walsall 

 as follows : " The street was full of fierce Ephesian 

 beasts (the principal men setting them on), who 

 roared and shouted, and threw stones incessantly. 

 At the conclusion, a stream of ruffians was suffered 

 to beat me down from the steps. I rose, and having 



