282 HIGHWAYS 



by compulsory labour. Four days of eight hours each 1 were 

 appointed for the work, the parishioners providing carts, teams, 

 implements, and labour, according to their means. Like other 

 Tudor legislation, the Act failed in its administration. Though 

 neglect to discharge the liability was punishable by fines, little 

 effect was produced. 



After the Restoration further efforts were made to improve 

 facilities of communication. Stage, or long, waggons had begun 

 in 1564 to ply between the metropolis and the principal towns in the 

 provinces ; private carriages were increasing ; about 1645 stage- 

 coaches were established. Travelling on wheels was recommended 

 for its " admirable commodiousness," and many of those who thus 

 traversed the roads to London were " persons of quality " who could 

 make their influence felt. Some means, in addition to statute 

 labour, was required to maintain the roads in repair for the increasing 

 traffic. During the first ten years of the reign of Charles II. it 

 seemed probable that this supplement would be provided by the 

 development of highway rates, which had been introduced in 1656. 

 Eventually a new auxiliary to statute labour was devised, which 

 arrested the growth of rates, and prolonged the life of the old 

 system by a century and a half. In 1663 the first Turnpike Trust 2 

 was established on the Great North Road by the erection of toll- 

 bars at Wadesmill, Caxton, and Stilton, and by the exaction of toll 

 from those who used the highway. This portion of one of the 

 principal roads in the country is described in the Act as " ruinous 

 and almost impassable." The inhabitants of the adjoining parishes 

 were too poor to put or keep the highway in repair, and though the 

 Act did not relieve them from their liability, the tolls raised a fund 

 towards the maintenance of the road. Other turnpike trusts were 

 established on the same principle. Their creation was unpopular. 

 Riots broke out, like those subsequently associated with the name of 

 Rebecca in Wales ; toll-bars were frequently pulled down and 

 burned ; and the opposition was only checked by an Act passed in 

 the reign of George II. (1728) which made their destruction a felony. 

 Turnpike Trusts multiplied rapidly, till in 1760 it was true to say that 



" no cit, nor clown, 

 Can gratis see the country or the town." 



1 In 1562, by 5 Eliz. c. 13, the "statute labour," as it was called, was in- 

 creased from 4 to 6 days. 



2 15 Car. II. c. 1. 



