Trade and Transport in the Turnpike Era 95 



as a Turk or a Lascar," and to be subjected to numerous 

 " vexations and humiliations " until, enraged and mortified, 

 he returned to his mansion where " he was once more a great 

 man, and saw nothing above himself except when at the 

 assizes he took his seat on the bench near the judge, or when 

 at the muster of the militia he saluted the Lord Lieutenant." 



Adding to such " vexations and humiliations " the cost, the 

 inconveniences and the perils of a journey to London perils, 

 too, that arose from highwaymen as well as from the roads 

 themselves the country gentleman was generally content to 

 seek his social distractions nearer home than London. To 

 quote again from Macaulay : 



" The county town was his metropolis. He sometimes 

 made it his residence during part of the year. At all events 

 he was often attracted thither by business and pleasure, by 

 assizes, quarter sessions, elections, musters of militia, festivals 

 and races. There were the halls in which the judges, robed in 

 scarlet and escorted by javelins and trumpets, opened the 

 King's commission twice a year. There were the markets at 

 which the corn, the cattle, the wool and the hops of the sur- 

 rounding country were exposed for sale. There were the 

 great fairs to which merchants came from London, and where 

 the rural dealer laid in his annual stores of sugar, stationery, 

 cutlery and muslin. There were the shops at which the best 

 families of the neighbourhood bought grocery and millinery." 



Defoe, in his " Tour," affords us some interesting glimpses 

 of the social life of various country towns in the first quarter 

 of the eighteenth century. Dorchester he describes as " in- 

 deed a pleasant town to live in. ... There is," he says, 

 " good company and a good deal of it," and he thinks " a man 

 that coveted a retreat in this world might as agreeably spend 

 his time, and as well, in Dorchester " as in any town he knew 

 in England. Exeter was " full of gentry and good company." 

 He has much to say in praise of social life in Dorsetshire. In 

 Plymouth " a gentleman might find very agreeable society." 

 Salisbury had " a good deal of good manners and good com- 

 pany." The " neighbourhood " of " Persons of Figure and 

 Quality " caused Maidstone to be "a very agreeable place 

 to live in," and one where a "Man of Letters and Manners" 

 would always " find suitable Society both to Divert and Im- 

 prove himself," the town being, in fact, one of "very great 



