47 8 History of Inland Transport 



port to which one could hardly attempt, at present, to fix any 

 limit. 



In respect to pleasure cars, detailed figures published in the 

 issue of " The Car " for December 14, 1910, show that the 

 number of these (as distinct from heavy motor- vehicles), 

 registered in the United Kingdom at that date, and allowing 

 as far as possible for those which had lapsed, was 124,860. 

 Of motor-cycles there were 86,414. These figures convey 

 some idea of the extent to which the automobile has been 

 not only substituted for private horsed-carriages, as used 

 for ordinary urban and social purposes, but adopted, also, 

 for those longer journeys or tours which the improved means 

 of locomotion have brought so much into vogue. 



How the country is being opened up more and more to 

 motor traffic may be shown by some references to the work 

 in this direction by the Royal Automobile Club and the 

 Automobile Association and Motor Union. 



Founded in 1897, the Royal Automobile Club is an influen- 

 tial body with many-sided activities, including the provision of 

 a club house in Pall Mall well deserving the designation of 

 " palatial," and typical of the high standing to which auto- 

 mobilism has attained. More, however, to my present pur- 

 pose than the social advantages offered by the club is the fact 

 that the R.A.C. not only advises its members or associates 

 as to the best route in regard to any tour they propose to 

 make by motor, at home or abroad, but provides them with a 

 complete typewritten itinerary and specially-designed maps 

 for such tour, the information given being kept up to date 

 by means of reports made by the members themselves. The 

 inquirer is given, also, a guide-book for the district in question 

 written from the point of view of the traveller by road ; he 

 receives some confidential notes concerning the hotels en 

 route, and he may arrange to retain the services, for periods 

 of an hour, a half-day, a day, or a week, of local guides 

 clergymen, writers, secretaries of local societies and others 

 who are qualified authorities on art, archaeology, architecture, 

 natural history, topography, etc., besides having an intimate 

 knowledge of the localities visited. In the Club itself there is 

 a well-stocked " Travel Library," from whichVbooks can be 

 borrowed. Should the member or the associate on tour come 

 into conflict with the law in regard to alleged offences under 



