Early Road Legislation 29 



neither dyke, tree nor bush whereby a man may lurk to 

 do hurt within two hundred feet on either side of the way " ; 

 but this measure was designed for the protection of travellers 

 against robbers, and had no concern with the repair of the 

 roads. In 1346 tolls were imposed, by authority of Edward 

 III., for the repair of three roads in London, namely, " the 

 King's highway between the hospital of St. Giles and the bar 

 of the old temple (in Holborn) " ; what is now Gray's Inn 

 Road (" being very much broken up and dangerous "), and 

 another road, supposed to be St. Martin's Lane. These tolls, 

 according to Macpherson's " Annals of Commerce " (1805) 

 were to be imposed for a period of two years upon all cattle, 

 merchandise and other goods passing along the roads in 

 question ; they were fixed at the rate of one penny in the 

 pound on the value of the animals or goods taxed, and they 

 were to be paid by all persons, except, curiously enough, 

 " lords, ladies, and persons belonging to religious establish- 

 ments or to the Church." Then, in 1353, " the highway 

 between Temple-bar and Westminster being already rendered 

 so deep and miry by the carts and horses carrying merchandise 

 and provision at the staple that it was dangerous to pass 

 upon it," the King required the owners of houses alongside to 

 repair the road in consideration of the increased value of their 

 property owing to the establishment of the staple. l 



Reference has already been made (page 13) to the con- 

 cession by Edward III. to " Phelippe the hermit " of the right 

 to impose tolls for the repair of the road on Highgate Hill. 

 Macpherson further says, under date 1363 : 



" The equitable mode of repairing the roads by funds 

 collected from those who used them was now so far established 

 that we find, besides the renewals of the tolls for the West- 

 minster road almost annually, tolls granted this year for the 

 road between Highgate and Smithfield, for that from Woox- 

 bridge (Uxbridge) to London, and for the venel called Faytor 

 (Fetter) lane in Holburn." 



In the reign of Henry VIII. the first Statutes relating to 



1 "Staple" was a term applied, in the Middle Ages (i) to a town to 

 which traders were encouraged to send their supplies of some particular 

 commodity wool, for example such town becoming the recognised head- 

 quarters of the trade concerned, while the arrangement was one that 

 facilitated the collection of the taxes imposed by the King on the traders ; 

 and (2) to the commodity sold under these conditions. 



