COACH LEGISLATION 199 



the ill which it is still possible for the common 

 infoi^mer to work, but the great days of these 

 gentry are gone. 



Parliament, never tired of legislating for roads 

 and vehicles, produced in course of time a strange 

 and bewildering medley of laws, often contradic- 

 tory of one another. Among these Acts, those for 

 the regulation of Avaggons were the most numerous. 

 An early curiosity of the statute book in this 

 connection is the Act of Charles II. forbiddinc: 

 carters and waggoners to drive six or more horses 

 tandem. Already, it appears, the old prohibition of 

 four-wheeled carts or wains, in 1622 and 1629, was 

 obsolete. Then followed an Act of William III. 

 expressly forbidding waggon-horses being yoked in 

 I)airs ; but another of the same reign Avithdrew this 

 prohibition, and, in allowing pairs, limited the team 

 to eight animals. In the succeeding reign of 

 Anne this limit was reduced to six in pairs, 

 except uphill, when additional horses might be 

 yoked on. The prohibition of horses going abreast 

 points to the extreme narrowness of the roads in 

 many parts of the country at that time, just as its 

 supersession by the Act permitting pairs would 

 appear to be a result of road-Avidening. 



To make a digest of this Avhole series of enact- 

 ments and the clauses repealed and re-enacted 

 would not only tax the acumen and industry of a 

 Parliamentary lawyer, but the result would be 

 tedious. Let us, then, jiass to the Act called, in 

 Parliamentary jargon, " 2J^th George II., c. 43." 

 This came into operation July 1st, 1752, and took 



