

HIDE OF LAND. 



a few mashes should be given. (Lib. of Use. 

 AW-.; The Horse, p. 371 ; Cuttle, p. 571.) 



HIDE OF LAND (Sax. Hyde lands) was 

 considered, in ancient Britain, to be such a 

 quantity of laud 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. funriliare, and says it is 

 as much as will maintain a family. Crompton, 

 in Jut-inflict it>ii, f. 222, says that a hide of land 

 contained 100 acres, and that 8 hides made a 

 knight's fee. But, according to Sir Edward 

 Coke, a knight's fee, a hide or ploughland, a 

 ya rdhind, or an ox-gang of land, did not contain 

 any certain quantity of acres (On Lit. f. 69), 

 but was determined by the value of 20/. per 

 annum. And a ploughland may contain a 

 messuage, wood, meadow, and pasture ; and 

 every |>li Highland 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 

 Kinir Ina. 



HIDES (Sax. hyee; Germ, haute,- Dutch, 

 . 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 arc raw or green; that is, in the state in 

 which they are taken off the carcass, or 

 with salt, alum, and saltpetre, to prevent them 

 from putrefying; or they 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 unianned 

 hides are annually imported, and about rjo.ooo 

 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, JUT cwt., 4s. Sd.-, wet, 2s. 4rf. ditto; pieces 

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

 per lb.; cut or trimmed, 1*. 2rf. 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" is warranted in pre- 

 suixing 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 

 during that period. By the common law, the j 

 obligation to repair the road lies upon the pa- ! 

 rish ; the bridges are to be repaired by the I 

 79 



HIGHWAYS. 



county, and not only the bridge, but since the 

 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 annually 

 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 20/. : he is entitled, however, to a 

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

 for neglect of duty. The surveyor, by s. 25, is 

 authorized to use adjoining grounds as a tem- 

 porary highway whilst the old road is repair- 

 ing and widening; and, by s. 27, he is empow- 

 ed to make a rate on the inhabitants, which 

 must, however, be allowed by the justices. 

 By s. 47, any person taking road scrapings or 

 other materials from the sides of roads, is lia- 

 ble to a penalty of 10/. The surveyor is em- 

 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, horseways 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 Roads. 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 : 



Description of Road. required to mov 



the carriage. 



Turnpike road hard dry - - - - 30ilbi 



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 - - - 500,000 

 Manual labour -..--- 250,000 

 Cartage 750,000 



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- 

 tion of them ; and 5, the size of them. In re- 

 pairing 1, the scraping; 2, the removal of 

 shading trees, &c.; 3, the watering. A careful 

 3G 625 



