372 History of the English Landed Interest, 



parish to the Justices' office or the Quarter Sessions the land- 

 lord's ex-officio claim to the magistracy of the district expired ; 

 and, as Rogers points out/ the old sj^stem, concentrating as it 

 did the functions of local discipline in the steward and inhabit- 

 ants of a parish, exercised a control and enforced a responsi- 

 bility which was so effective in the thirteenth and fourteenth 

 centuries, and which was indifferently compensated for by the 

 authority of an individual or a bench of magistrates. This 

 same author even goes so far as to attribute the increased 

 vagabondage and destitution of the later Tudor period to this 

 cause. Here, however, we must beg to differ, for this destitu- 

 tion is more probably attributable to the abolition of monastic 

 poor relief, an event it immediately succeeded. 



An important item of the business in the Leet Courts was 

 the proper repairs of the highways. Macaulay has drawn one 

 of those vivid pictures for which he is celebrated, of their con- 

 dition at this period. Canals there were none, and the commu- 

 nication by water was an insignificant item in the internal 

 traffic of the nation. Ruts were deep, descents precipitous, 

 and the lines of demarcation between what was the route and 

 what was unenclosed heath and fen ill-defined. In other 

 places a narrow carriage way passed between mudbanks, 

 which occupied a large portion on each side of the legitimate 

 track. People frequently lost their way by getting off the 

 beaten path, coaches stuck fast in the mire, and altercations 

 constantly occurred between opposing carriers, neither of 

 whom would give place to the other. The inundation of 

 riveis menaced the travellers' lives with a watery death, and 

 none but the strongest horses or oxen could pull their loads 

 thrcngh the bogs of Kent and Surrey. There is no wonder 

 then that markets distant only a few miles were inaccessible 

 in winter, and that the fruits of the earth were often left to 

 rot where they grew. The richer travellers passed through 

 the kingdom in private carriages and hired coaches, whilst 

 their luggage and inferiors were jumbled together in stage 

 wagons. Heavier materials, such as coal, were carried by 



' Eogcrs, Six Lenturies of Work and Wcujes, p. 420. 



