OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 19 



The story book tells us that Eichard travelled to London on foot, 

 getting an occasional lift in the wagon of a friendly carrier. Xow as 

 to the former part of this account, nothing is more probable, though, 

 for the carrier's wagon, I would say read packhorse ; there were 

 certainly no coaches in that day, nor till nearly two centuries after- 

 wards * I very much doubt whether there were any wagons such as 

 the carrier's wagons (which are now indeed almost exploded by the 

 invention of railways) for there were literally no roads in those days, 

 nor anything but green tracks across the countiy, through which pack- 

 horses,-'^ carrying merchandize, floundered up to their knees in mud, 

 from the frequent use of the tracks without adequate repair/ AVhen 

 the gently and ladies travelled, they did so on horseback,'' while 

 invalids or ladies unequal to the fatigue of riding were generally 

 carried in litters. Precisely the same state of travelling existed in 

 the island of Sicily when I made the tour in the spring of 1826. 

 It is not probable that Whittiugton, in setting out to seek his fortune, 

 had the means of supplying himself with a horse of his own ; it is 

 therefore not at all unlikely that he did walk, or avail himself of a lift 

 upon one of those packhorses which travelled in companies along the 

 great highways of those days, and, perhaps, rode many a mile perched 

 up among the bales of cloth, of wool,' or of spices. In the age when 



e The first coach, ever puhlicly seen in England was the equipage of Robert 

 Fitz Allen, steward of the household of Queen Elizabeth. 



/ A master mercer was fined 203. in Henry the Sixth's reign, for himself riding 

 with wares of mercery "in fardell and horsepacks for sale in the country," this 

 being considered, I presume, undignified in a master mercer. 



g The first general statute for mending highways in England was passed in 

 1555, and surveyors then appointed for the first time. — Andi-cw's CoiitimMtion of 

 Henri/' s History of England, vol. II. p. 243. 



h Ladies first rode on side saddles in the fourteenth centuiy (a plan introduced 

 by Queen Anne, of Luxembourg, wife of Eichard II., sister of ^yinceslaus, Emperor 

 of Germany), having before these days ridden astride like men. — Beauties of 

 England and Wales, vol. 10, part 1, p. 181, Note. 



i Gloucestershire has always been a celebrated county for wool. There were 

 many woolstaplers and clothiers established there, and if (as is not improbable) 

 Whittington fell in with a caravan of these packhorses, it might have been the 

 means of his introduction to the mercers, who at that time dealt almost cxchi- 

 sively in that article. — (See Sumptuary Act, 37, Edw. III.) 



