DIFFICULTIES OF COMMUNICATION 275 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 HIGHWAYS. 



THE local progress of farming, at the close of the eighteenth century, 

 had been great ; but its general advance was still hampered by 

 numerous hindrances. In many parts of England the inveterate 

 preference for old-fashioned practices was slowly yielding to experi- 

 ence of the results of more modern methods. Defects in the 

 relations between owners and occupiers were mitigated by the 

 grant of leases, which secured to improving tenants a return for 

 their outlay of money and labour. Obstacles presented by soil 

 and climate, so far as they were capable of remedy, were in pro- 

 cess of removal. Experience had shown that sands might be 

 fertilised, and the acidity of sour land corrected, by the use of 

 the proper dressings, selected with judgment and applied with 

 perseverance ; that considerable tracts of moor, heath, and moss 

 might be brought into profitable cultivation ; that fens and swamps 

 might be drained ; that even the disadvantages of climate might 

 be ameliorated by plantations. But there remained a number 

 of hindrances, which originated in the laws and customs of the 

 country. To this class belonged difficulties of communication. 

 The incidence of tithe on the produce of the land will be treated in 

 a subsequent chapter. 



A generation familiar with railways and good roads can hardly 

 appreciate the obstacle to progress which was created by diffi- 

 culties of transport and communication. Up to the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, rivers had exercised the greatest influence on 

 the development of inland trade centres. In few districts, and 

 only in favourable seasons, could heavy goods be conveyed over 

 the unmade roads. The command of water carriage was all- 

 important. On straightening, deepening, or widening rivers so as 

 to make them navigable, early legislators from the fifteenth century 



