The General Aspect of the Coimtry. 2 89 



for carriage of goods were the rivers whenever their route, 

 size and depth served as a waterway. Without examining 

 Tudor road legislation ad nauseam^^ we may cite the 2 & 

 3 P. & M. c. 8 as the first general statute for the repair of 

 highways, which provided for the appointment of two sur- 

 ve^^ors and the boon services four days per annum of all the 

 inhabitants in each parish. 



The chief feature of all road legislation is the recognition 

 of the land's liability by all the parties concerned in the 

 transaction ; nor was there anj^ hardship in this so long as it 

 was the farmer's wagon which rendered the highwa3^s noj'ous 

 and jeopardous. The introduction of tolls or turnpikes, however, 

 in the reign of Charles II., initiates a fresh policy in road 

 repairs, necessitated by the national rather than local use of 

 certain thoroughfares, the maintenance of which could not 

 have been with justice solely drawn from the pockets of those 

 parishioners who were unlucky enough to live in their vicinity. 

 But from 1773 to 1835, the highways other than turnpike 

 roads continued to be repaired by the boon service" initiated 

 by the Tudor statute already referred to. It would be an 

 anachronism at this early stage to discuss the road legislation 

 of the last half century, though it may be pointed out that 

 there is a tendency, evidenced by the recent though abortive 

 van and wheel tax, to dissociate the charge for repairs from 

 the purse of the landed classes. 



At length then opportunity occurs for examining the 

 country along the routes of these highwa^^s. Starting then 

 on the " Fosse AVay," first of the four great roads already 

 mentioned, the traveller would find himself traversing many 

 Cornish valleys of indifferent glebe,^ which the inhabitants 

 make "rank and batch" with top dressings of ore wood and 



^ There were six Acts referring to road repairs in Marj- 's reign, and 

 nineteen in Elizabeth's. — Craig and Macfarlane, Hist, of Eng., Bk. VI., 

 ch. iv. 



^ Glen, Law relating to Hightvays, Bk. I., ch. iv. 



3 The whole of the topographical sketch which ensues is taken from 

 information contained in Camden's Counties, which work was probably 

 written during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. 



U 



