Loads, Wheels and Roads 45 



mitted to draw any number of horses, it would be of great 

 public utility in lowering the price of these animals, which is 

 now enormously high. The law, as it now stands, acts as a 

 prohibition to farmers breeding horses ; for a breeding mare, 

 or a colt under five years old, is not fit to draw one of four in 

 a waggon, with no more than 60 bushels of barley or wheat, 

 which is the common load of the Shropshire or Staffordshire 

 farmers, neither being more than two tons. . . . Another evil 

 occasioned by the law is that such farmers are obliged to keep 

 horses of the largest size, which consume the produce of much 

 land by eating a large quantity of corn." Whereas good 

 waggon-horses could formerly be bought at from 10 to ^15 

 each, they were then, " by their scarcity," costing from ^25 

 to ^35 each. Coach-horses cost " from ^40 to 60." 



The various provisions in respect to number of horses or 

 oxen per cart or waggon failed to keep down the loads to a 

 weight suited to the deficiencies of the roads which de- 

 ficiencies had continued, notwithstanding the turnpikes 

 and a further step was taken under 14 Geo. II., c. 42, which 

 authorised turnpike trustees not only to erect weighing 

 machines but to impose an additional toll of twenty shillings 

 per cwt. on any waggon which, together with its contents, had 

 a total weight exceeding 60 cwt. By Geo. II., c. 43, the 

 trustees were authorised to levy the same additional toll on 

 any vehicle drawn by six horses. 



In addition to adopting these various restrictions on the 

 weights carried, Parliament had devoted much attention to 

 the construction of the vehicles employed. One of the pro- 

 visions of an Act passed in 1719 was a regulation in respect to 

 the breadth of the wheel-rims, or " fellies," and the use thereon 

 of rose-headed nails, these being regarded as injurious to the 

 roads ; though in the following year came another Act which 

 recited that as the extending of these regulations to waggons 

 that did not travel for hire had been found detrimental to 

 farmers and others, and, also, to the markets of the Kingdom, 

 they were repealed only, however, to be revived, by 18 Geo. 

 II., c. 33, in 1745. 



Parliament was now to devote much more attention to the 

 subject of broad wheels ; and how this came about is ex- 

 plained by Daniel Bourn in a pamphlet entitled, " A Treatise 

 upon Wheel Carriages " (1763), the main purpose of which was 



