HIDE OF LAND. 



HIGHWAYS. 



a few mashes should be given. (Lib. of Use. \ county, and not only the bridge, but since the 



Kn<n<\; The Horse, p. 371 ; Cattle, p. 571.) 



HIDE OF LAND (Sax. Hyde lands) was 

 considered, in ancient Britain, to be such a 

 quantity of land as one plough and its team 

 could plough in a year. It was hence called a 

 ploughland. It was about 100, 120, or 150 

 acres. Bede calls it a. fumiliare, and says it is 

 as much as will maintain a family. Crompton, 

 in Jurisdiction, f. 222, says that a hide of land 



22 Henry VIII. c. 5, s. 9, the road or approaches 

 for 300 feet " from any of the ends of it." Sur- 

 veyors of the highways are now annuallj 

 elected by the parishioners on or within 14 

 days of the 25th of March (5 and 6 W. IV., c. 

 50, s. 6) ; and the surveyor may be, by sect. 6 

 of this act, re-elected, who must serve, under a 

 penalty of 20f. : he is entitled, however, to a 

 salary; by s. 20, he is liable to a penalty of 5/. 



contained 100 acres, and that 8 hides made a j for neglect of duty. The surveyor, by s. 25, is 

 knight's fee. But, according to Sir Edward j authorized to use adjoining grounds as a tern- 

 Coke, a knight's fee, a hide or ploughland, a porary highway whilst the old road is repair- 

 yardland.or an ox-gang of land, did not contain | ing and widening; and, by s. 27, he is empow- 

 any certain quantity of acres (On Li!, f. 69), | ed to make a rate on the inhabitants, which 

 but was determined by the value of 20/. per ! must, however, be allowed by the justices, 

 annum. And a ploughland may contain a I By s. 47, any person taking road scrapings or 

 messuage, wood, meadow, and pasture; and other materials from the sides of roads, is lia- 

 ble to a penalty of 101. The surveyor is em- 



every ploughland of ancient time was of the 

 yearly value of five nobles ; and this was the 

 living of a ploughman or yeoman. The distri- 

 bution of England into hides of land is very 

 ancient, for they are mentioned in the laws of 

 King Ina. 



HIDES (Sax. hyt>e; Germ, haute; Dutch, 

 lin.itli'it). Generally speaking, this term is ap- 

 applied to the skins of most beasts; but in 

 commerce it is limited to the strong and thick 

 skin* of the horse, ox, and other large animals. 

 Hides are raw or green; that is, in the state in 

 which they are taken off the carcass, or dressed 

 with salt, alum, and saltpetre, to prevent them 

 from putrefying; or the}' are cured or tanned. 

 The hides of South America are in the highest 

 repute, and vast quantities of them are annually 

 imported into Great Britain. Large quantities 

 are also received from various parts of the 

 continent, and from Morocco, the Cape of Good 

 Hope, &c. About 200,000 cwt. of untanned 

 hides are annually imported, and about 120,000 

 cwt. of other hides, exclusive of Russia hides, 

 which form a large proportion of the imports. 

 The rate of duty charged on hides is untanned, 

 dry, per cwt., 4*. 8</. ; wet, 2s. 4rf. ditto ; pieces 

 of hide, or hides tawed, curried, or dressed, 9d. 

 per Ib. ; cut or trimmed, Is. 2//. per Ib. Those 

 imported from British colonies are only liable 

 to half this rate of duty. 



HIGHWAYS received their name from the 

 Roman method of elevating the road upon 

 causeways, or by raised earth. In the English 

 common law, highways are roads common to 

 all the Queen's subjects, which the parish are 

 liable to repair. All ways, either for foot pas- 

 sengers, or carriages and horses, are properly 

 highways. If a road is dedicated to the public 

 for 25 years, it becomes a highway, which the 

 parish are bound to repair, although they have 

 not acquiesced in the dedication of the road. 

 And if a road has been freely used by the pub- 

 lic for 4 or 5 years, a jur ir is warranted in pre- 

 suming that the owners of the soil consented 

 to its being thus used. Bridges in highways 

 become public by whomsoever built, but not 

 raised causeways furnished with culverts over 

 meadows, if more than 300 feet from the 

 bridge ; and a bridge only used by the public 

 in periods of floods, is merely a public bridge 



powered to dig for road materials within his 

 own, or any other parish, and to gather stones 

 free from charge, on any land within his par- 

 ish, but he must pay for any damage done to 

 the land during their removal ; and after ob- 

 taining license from the justices in special 

 sessions, he may enter upon and dig for road 

 materials, making, however, satisfaction to the 

 owners; and he must fill up the holes he 

 makes, or have them filled up and sloped 

 down. No tree shall be allowed to be planted 

 within 15 feet of the centre of the highway; 

 and with the authority of a justice of the peace 

 (after duly summoning the owner to show 

 cause), the surveyor may order hedges and 

 trees, which shade or otherwise injure high- 

 ways, to be cut and plashed. Cartways must 

 be 20 feet, horse ways 8, and footways 3 feet 

 wide. 



A surveyor of highways is not personally 

 liable to the labourers ; they must look to the 

 commissioners, or their treasurer. A way 

 warden may charge law expenses incurred in 

 the discharge of his duty. 



Repairing RoaHg. The advantages of keep- 

 ing roads in repair, if only regarded by the 

 farmer as lessening the draught of his horses, 

 may be estimated from the following table of 

 the average force required to draw a light 

 four-wheeled cart, weighing, with its load, 1000 

 pounds : 



Force of fracture 

 Description of Road. fc required to mov>> 



the carriage. 

 Turnpike road hard dry .... 30J Ibs. 



Turnpike road dirty ----- 39 



Hard, compact loam ----- 53 



Ordinary bye-road ------ 106 



Turnpike road, newly gravelled - 143 



Loose sandy road ------ 204 



The annual expense of repairing the roads 

 throughout England, according to a report of a 

 committee of the House of Commons in 1814, 

 amounted to 1,500,0002., which Mr. Penfold in 

 his Treatise on Road-making, divides into 



Materials, tradesmen, and officers 

 Manual labour - 



- 500,000 



250,000 



- 750,000 



Cartage 



The chief points to be attended to in road 

 making are 1, the foundation ; 2, the drainage ; 

 3, the choice of the materials ; 4, the prepara- 



.du ring that period. By the common law, the ; tion of them ; and 5, the size 'of' them. In re- 

 obligation to repair the road lies upon the pa- 1 pairing 1, the scraping; 2, the removal of 

 nsh; the bridges are to be repaired by the I shading trees, &c.; 3, the watering. A careful 

 79 3 G 625 



