COACH LEGISLATION 201 



into adjacent roads for the purpose of avoiding 

 toll, and a penalty Avas set up for so doing. This 

 was the forfeiting of one horse (not heing the shaft 

 or thill horse) and " all his gear and accoutre- 

 ments." This phrase for harness strikes one as 

 lacing magnificent, and almost raises the sturdy 

 Suffolk " Punch " or the Lincolnshire carthorse to 

 the status of a military hero. 



No enforcement of this penalty can he found, 

 hut it is not to he supposed that it was never made, 

 although, to he sure, the clause had loopholes suffi- 

 ciently wide for the traditional coach-and-six to he 

 easily driven through. Apart from the question- 

 ahle legality of forbidding common roads to traffic, 

 it Avould have needed no very able lawyer to suc- 

 cessfully defend an oifender charged with being 

 on a bye-route " with intent to defraud " the tolls. 

 Half a dozen sufficient exj)lanations would have 

 been ready. The waggoner might have missed 

 his way; it might have been his best way— and 

 so forth. 



This Act, and others of like nature, especially 

 exempted certain classes of waggons and carts, 

 particularly agricultural vehicles ; while his 

 Majesty's War Office and military commanders 

 might use waggons carrying any weight they 

 thought proper and draWn by as many horses as 

 might be thought necessary. The law was, in 

 fact, framed to protect the roads against traders, 

 who were thought to be profiting greatly by the 

 growth of manufactures and not contributing 

 sufficiently to the upkeep of the roads which it 



