S/R A'( >(;/■:/,' /.A'.V/A'.I.V^'A', 139 



SIR ROGKR I/ESTRAXGE. 



1 616- 1 704 



The rearinor oi calllc on [he produce of arable laud, wliich lollowrd the 

 introduction of clover, (grasses, and roots, beoan about this period to 

 make a great change in the methods adopted by farmers, and many 

 were the advisers whose ideas were rushed into print to meet the 

 demand for agricultural knowledge among the cultivators of the soil, and 

 although some of these publications occasioned losses by tempting the 

 unpractised to become farmers by inducing them to try unprofitable 

 experiments, they undoubtedly contributed to the public benelit, if only 

 by the wisdom gained from such failures. 



The Act for levving tolls at turnpikes had been in operation for some 

 years, yet the rt^ads in every direction were in anytliing but good 

 condition tor the conveyance of produce anv distance away, and this 

 circumstance greatlv hindered the interchange of commodities. The 

 prosperity of agriculture has always been much influenced bv the 

 proximity of a busy market, the prices at which dejicnded in the main 

 upon good roads in ensuring a tacilitv of intercourse and conse([uent 

 equal supplv at all seasons. 



It was this diflicultv of easv communication between one place and 

 another that caused the prices to vary so considerably in one market 

 from another. In 1677 appeared the curious tract of which the title- 

 page is illustrated ; the author I have put down to be Sir Roger 

 I'Estrange, a voluminous writer of that time. He was born in 1616, 

 died in 1704, and was buried at the church of St. Giles in the Fields. 

 He belonged, I believe, to an old Norfolk family, and his descend- 

 ants still own many broad acres in that county. 



He complains that wool was '' only worth 7c/. per pound whereas 

 previously it had reached is. bt/., a condition largely brought about 

 through the decay of the merchant adventurers who did formerly send 

 away so many of our English cloathes into Germany," and to the great 

 importation of Spanish wool, upon which he advocated a duty should be 

 imposed. He feared such times were coming as would stop ihc kililun 

 from being the best room in the house. It may be stated that at one 

 time the manufacture of our wool became a national employment, and 

 according to the statutes of King Edward III. it was made felony to 

 carry any wool out of the realm, and the Heroic King, as he is called, 

 also made the following statute: "That no Merchant, Foreign or 

 Denizen, nor any other, after the feast of St. Michael shall cause to bt; 

 brought privily or apertly, by himself, nor by any other into the said land 

 of England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland within the King's power, any 

 other Cloathes made in any other jjlacc than in the same, upon Forfeiture 



