64 DIARY OF WILLIAM WHITEWAY. 



Throughout the winter the small-pox was very prevalent in the 

 town, and many children, and some elder people died. 



In the beginning of February the cold was intense, so that many 

 people were frozen to death on the highways. 



In March Sir Arthur Smitheyers with his household took up his 

 residence in the town. 



On Dec. 16. The new brewhouse took fire and much injury 

 was done to it. 



This brewhouse built in 1621 was the " common " brewhouse established 

 for the maintenance of the hospital. 



Sep. 4, 1623. This day we went for London, and returned 23 

 days after, having staid in London 16 days. 



Travelling in the 16th and 17th centuries was a very different matter 

 from travelling in the 19th. Few persons moved far from home in those 

 days unless important business required their presence elsewhere, when 

 they did so, before setting out on their journey and encountering the 

 perils of the road, they generally made their wills. The dangers were 

 very real ones ; in the first place, the roads were infested with highway- 

 men who robbed and murdered travellers. An Act was passed in 1285 

 which ordained that highways between market towns should be widened, 

 and that woods, dikes, and cover with 200 yards, on either side of it 

 should be destroyed. The proprietor who neglected to carry out the 

 provisions of the act, was held responsible for all felonies committed by 

 persons who lurked in his coverts. This act made highway robberies less 

 frequent though it did not remove all danger from this source highway 

 robberies were still of frequent occurrence. 



In addition to the risk the traveller ran of being robbed and perhaps 

 murdered, by the way, was the scarcely less serious one of injury through 

 the state of the roads. The country roads were mere tracks worn 

 hollow by trains of pack-horses and mules, by which was the general 

 mode of transport for goods. The highways between market towns were 

 in scarcely better condition. Even between London and Westminster, 

 lined as it was with stately mansions on each side, the road was worn 

 into deep ruts and hollows which in wet weather became full of mud, in 

 which pedestrians sank sometimes to the knees ; and to render it possible 

 for the royal carriage to travel safely over it when the sovereign 

 attended parliament, these holes had to be filled up with fagots. 

 Whilst the roads were in such a state, carriages were but little used. 

 Queen Elizabeth's carriage sometimes became embedded in a mud 



