32 



II.— ROADS. 



THE first Act of Parliament authorizing the construction of turn- 

 pike roads in Westmorland was passed in 1752, up to which date 

 the whole of the trade, both internal and external, was carried on by 

 pack horses along the narrow pack-horse tracks. Gangs of pack horses, 

 totalling over 300, plied regularly between Kendal and Wigan, White- 

 haven over Hard Knott and Wrynose, Cockermouth, Barnard Castle, 

 Penrith, Settle, York, Ulverston, Orton, Appleby, and other villages. 

 Four gangs of 15 to 20 horses each were constantly on the London 

 road, two travelling through Lancashire and two through Yorkshire — 

 the single journey occupying ten days. In 1698 Ogilby only shows 

 one road in Westmorland from Kendal through Ambleside and Keswick 

 to Cockermouth, and of this he writes : " This road is as bad as any- 

 thing in England, being very hilly, stony, and moorish " ; in 1730 

 the High Constable of Kendal and Lonsdale Wards reported to the 

 magistrates upon this road : " Applethwaite ffrom ye foot of St. 

 Catherine's Brow to the top very narrow and bad road, and soe on to 

 Misled Moor, bad road and very narrow in some places." The width 

 of these roads was only some five or six feet, and they were kept in 

 very bad repair, and were often under water. The magistrates made 

 an order on the inhabitants of Kentmere and Applethwaite to repair 

 the road over Garburn from Kentmere to Troutbeck because "it is 

 soe much out of repair and in decay, that a great part of it is not 

 passable for either man or Horse to travel through the said ways 

 without danger of being bogged in the moss or lamed among the 

 stones," and if not repaired before the next Session the " Inhabitants 

 of each place to be fined a sum of Ten Pounds severally." It is to be 

 feared that little was ever done towards the repair of the roads without 

 a long and tedious process of legal compulsion. The gangs of pack 

 horses, led by a bell horse, were one of the rural features of the county, 

 and on the approach of any of the great fairs, such as Brough Hill, 

 " it was a sight worth remembering to witness the procession of men 

 and horses with miscellaneous goods, making their way out of the 



