Trade and Transport in the Turnpike Era 89 



and Farmers near London used to engross them, and keep 

 them till December and January, and then sell them, though 

 not an Ounce fatter than before, for an advanced price to 

 the Citizens of London ; whereas now the Roads are in a Way 

 to be made everywhere passable the City will be serv'd with 

 Mutton almost as cheap in the Winter as in the summer, and 

 the profit of the advance will be to the Country Graziers, who 

 are the original Breeders and take all the Pains. 



" This is evidenc'd to a Demonstration in the Counties 

 where the Roads are already repair'd, from whence they bring 

 their fat Cattle, and particularly their Mutton, in Droves, 

 from Sixty, Seventy or Eighty Miles without fatiguing, 

 harrassing or sinking the Flesh of the Creatures, even in the 

 Depth of the Winter." 



Whether or not the fat cattle and the sheep were really 

 able to do their long walk to London without fatigue and 

 loss of flesh, it is certain that the naturally bad condition 

 of the roads leading to London was made worse by the " in- 

 finite droves of black cattle, hogs and sheep " which passed 

 along them from Essex, Lincolnshire and elsewhere. When 

 the roads were being continually trodden by the feet of large 

 heavy bullocks, " of which," says Defoe, " the numbers that 

 come this way " that is, out of Lincolnshire and the fens 

 " are scarce to be reckon'd up," the work done by the turnpike 

 commissioners in the summer was often completely spoiled 

 in the winter. Among, therefore, the many advantages of the 

 rail transport of to-day we may reckon the fact that the roads 

 and highways are no longer worn to the same extent as before 

 by cattle and sheep on their way to the London markets. 



Defoe alludes, also, to the influence of improved communi- 

 cations on the development of the fish industry, with the 

 subsidiary advantage of improving the food supplies of the 

 people, saying, in this connection 



" I might give Examples where the Herrings which are not 

 the best Fish to keep, used, even before these Reparations 

 were set on foot, to be carried to those Towns, and up to 

 Warwick, Birmingham, Tarn worth and Stafford, and though 

 they frequently stunk before they got thither, yet the people 

 were so eager for them, that they bought them up at a dear 

 Rate ; whereas when the Roads are every where good they 

 will come in less Time, by at least two Days in Six of what they 



