BRITISH ROADS. 



advantage, allowed them to fall into neglect and disrepair. Nor 

 were any new roads in other or better directions constructed. For 

 a succession of ages the little intercourse that was maintained 

 between the various parts of Great Britain was effected almost 

 exclusively by rude footpaths, traversed by pedestrians, or at best 

 by horses. 



These were carried over the natural surface of the ground, 

 generally in straight directions, from one place to another. Hills 

 were surmounted, valleys crossed, and rivers forded by these rude 

 agents of transport, in the same manner as the savages and settlers 

 of the backwoods of America or the slopes of the Rocky Mountains 

 now communicate with each other. 



15. The first important attempt made to improve the communi- 

 cations of Great Britain took place in the reign of Charles II. In 

 the sixteenth year of the reign of that monarch was established 

 the first turnpike road where toll was taken, which intersected the 

 counties of Hertford, Cambridge, and Huntingdon. It long 

 remained, however, an isolated line of communication ; and it was 

 little more than a century ago that any extensive or effectual 

 attempts were made, of a general character, to construct a good 

 system of roads through the country. 



16. Until the middle of the eighteenth century, most of the 

 merchandise which was conveyed from place to place in Scotland 

 was transported on pack-horses. Oatmeal, coals, turf, and even hay 

 and straw, were carried in this manner through short distances ; 

 but when it was necessary to carry merchandise between 

 distant places, a cart was used, a horse not being able to transport 

 on his back a sufficient quantity of goods to pay the cost of the 

 journey. 



17. The time required by the common carriers to complete their 

 journey seems, when compared with our present standard of speed, 

 quite incredible. Thus, it is recorded that the carrier between 

 Selkirk and Edinburgh, a distance of thirty-eight miles, required 

 a fortnight for his journey, going and returning. The road lay 

 chiefly along the bottom of the district called Gala-tcater, the bed 

 of the stream, when not flooded, being the ground chosen as the 

 most level and easy to travel on. 



In 1678, a contract was made to establish a coach for pas- 

 sengers between Edinburgh and Glasgow, a distance of forty-four 

 miles. This coach was drawn by six horses, and the journey 

 between the two places, to and fro, was completed in six days. 

 Even so recently as the year 1750, the stage-coach from Edinburgh 

 to Glasgow took thirty- six hours to make the journey. In 1849, 

 the sair>e journey was made, by a route three miles longer, in one 

 hour and a half ! 



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