A. D. 1555. 119- 



living out of a city, borough, or market-town, fliall keep above one 

 loom in his houle.nor let out any loom for hire. II) That no woollen- 

 weaver, living out of a city, burgh, or market town, fhali keep more 

 than two looms, nor more than two apprentices. Ill) No weaver (hall 

 have a tucking-mill, nor be a tucker, fuller, or dyer. IV) No tucker 

 nor fuller fhall keep any loom in his houfe. V) No perfon, who has 

 not heretofore been a clothmaker, fhall hereafter make or weave any 

 kind of broad white woollen cloths, but only in a city, burgh, tmvn- 

 corporate, or market town, or elfe in fuch places w'lere luch cl'~>ths have 

 been ufed to be commonly made for ten years preceding this afl *. 

 VI) No perfon fhall fet up as a weaver, unlefs he has prevumfly fervcd 

 an apprenticefhip of feven years to that bufinefs. Laflly, Nothmg in 

 this ad: is to extend or be prejudicial to the in'i 'bitants of the count 'es 

 of York, Cumberland, Northumberland, and Weflmoreland ; but they 

 may keep looms in their houfes, and do every orhtr matter relating tO" 

 fpinning, weaving, and cloth-making in the faid counties as before the 

 making of this ftatute. 



Commerce beginning to increafe confiderably in the reign Oi ,)ueen 

 Mary, and the old roads being much frequented by lieavy carriages, an 

 ad [2, 3 FhiL et Mar. c. 8] which is flill m force, direded. that every 

 parifh Ihould annually elect two furveyors of the highways, ro fee that 

 the parifhioners, according to their lands, abilities, farms, &c. (hould 

 fend their carts, horfes, men, tools, 8tc. four da\s in every year, for 

 mending the roads. So that this is properly the firfl: general ftatute 

 made for mending the roads, extending to all England and Wales, by 

 the labour and expenfe of each refpedive parifh alone ; and on that 

 bottom alone, we find in all fix ftatutes relating to this fubjed in Queen 

 Mary's reign, and about nineteen in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and one 

 in King James I's reign ; after which there were none of this fort till 

 the refloration of Charles II. The parochial means for keeping the 

 roads in repair were found in moft cafes tolerably eflfedual, until after 

 the refloration, when the vaft increafe of commerce and manufadures, 

 and of the capital city of London, with the concomitant increafe of 

 luxury, brought in fuch numbers of heavy wheel-carriages, as rendered 

 it by degrees impradicable, in mofl cafes, for parifhes entirely to ktep 

 their own part of the roads in a tolerable condition, more efpeciaily in 

 the counties lying nearer London, and in manufaduring counties. This 

 has introduced the more equitable and effedual method of tolls, pay- 

 able at toll-gates (called turnpikes), by thofe who ufe and wear the 

 roads : and many fubfequent local ftatutes have been made for thofe 

 ends, and alfo feveral general ones for limiting the weight of waggon 

 loads, the breadth of wheel-rims, called fellies, the number of horfes, &c. 



* This claufe appears to have been well intended, that the fearchers might be the better enabled to 

 attend to the good of the manufafture. 



