CHAPTER IX 



THE AGE OF BAD ROADS 



IN the present chapter I propose to bring together the testi- 

 mony of various contemporary writers with a view to enabling 

 the reader thoroughly to realise those bad-road conditions 

 from which, it was hoped, the country would at last be saved by 

 the introduction of the system of turnpike roads inaugurated 

 by the Act of 1663. 



Evidence of the general character of English roads at the 

 time the Act was passed, and, also, probably, for a considerable 

 period afterwards, is afforded by the maps and descriptions 

 of routes given by Ogilby in his " Britannia " (see page 33). 

 The maps indicate by means of lines and dots where the 

 roads had been enclosed, by hedges or otherwise, on one side 

 or both, and where they were still open. Taking the series 

 of maps for the route from London to Berwick, and so on to 

 Scotland, one finds that for a distance of about twenty-five 

 or thirty miles from London, the road was then mostly 

 enclosed ; and from that point, through a large part of 

 Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, North- 

 amptonshire, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, 

 only occasional stretches, mostly in the neighbourhood of 

 towns, and often for lengths of no more than half a mile each, 

 were enclosed either on one side of the road or both. The 

 enclosures began again about six miles south of York, and 

 continued for a short distance on the north of that city ; but 

 beyond York they became still more rare, and from Morpeth 

 (Northumberland) to Berwick, a distance of about fifty miles, 

 the total extent of enclosed road did not exceed six miles. 

 Taking roads in the west, it is shown that in forty miles 

 or so between Abingdon and Gloucester there was not a 

 single enclosure. 



What all this meant was that, where there had been no 

 enclosure, the road was simply a track across commons, fens, 



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