70 History of Inland Transport 



holes, like an old pavement ; sufficient to dislocate ones 

 bones." 



" To Lancaster. Turnpike. Very bad, rough and cut up." 



" To Preston. Turnpike. Very bad." 



" To Wigan. Ditto. I know not in the whole range of 

 language terms sufficiently expressive to describe this infernal 

 road. To look over a map, and perceive that it is a principal 

 one, not only to some towns, but even whole counties, one 

 would naturally conclude it to be at least decent ; but let me 

 most seriously caution all travellers who may accidentally 

 propose to travel this terrible country to avoid it as they 

 would the devil ; for a thousand to one but they break their 

 necks or their limbs by overthrows or breakings down. They 

 will here meet with rutts which I actually measured four feet 

 deep, and floating with mud only from a wet-summer ; what 

 therefore must it be after a winter ? The only mending it 

 receives is the tumbling in some loose stones, which serve no 

 other purpose but jolting a carriage in the most intolerable 

 manner. These are not merely opinions but facts, for I actually 

 passed three carts broken down in these eighteen miles of 

 execrable memory." 



" To Warrington. Turnpike. This is a paved road, and 

 most infamously bad. . . . Tolls had better be doubled and 

 even quadrupled than allow such a nuisance to remain." 



" From Dunholm to Knotsford. Turnpike. It is impossible 

 to describe these infernal roads in terms adequate to their 

 defects. Part of these six miles I think are worse than any of 

 the preceding." 



" To Newcastle. Turnpike. This, in general, is a paved 

 causeway, as narrow as can be conceived, and cut into per- 

 petual holes, some of them two feet deep, measured on the 

 level ; a more dreadful road cannot be imagined ; and wher- 

 ever the country is in the least sandy the pavement is dis- 

 continued, and the rutts and holes most execrable. I was 

 forced to hire two men at one place to support my chaise from 

 overthrowing, in turning out from a cart of goods overthrown 

 and almost buried. Let me persuade all travellers to avoid 

 this terrible country, which must either dislocate their bones 

 with broken pavements or bury them in muddy sand." 



" I must in general advise all who travel on any business 

 but absolute necessity to avoid any journey further north 



