.THE OLD E^^G LAND' OF COACHING' DAYS 325 



close stoves had they heen given the chance, 

 just as they woukl Iiave exchanged tlie tallow 

 dip for electric lighting had the opportunity 

 offered. We do not know the feelings with 

 which the first gentlemen to use carpets abolished 

 the old rush-strewn halls and the manners and 

 customs contemporary Avith them ; but if their 

 sense of smell was as acute as our own, they must 

 have noticed Avith great relief the absence of the 

 dirt and festering bones that found a hiding-place 

 beneath those rushes. All the marvellous changes 

 in habits of living — the cheajDcning of food, 

 the conversion of the luxuries of a former age 

 into the ordinary requirements of this, and even 

 the alterations in the face of the country and the 

 houses of towns and villages — are due to those 

 increased facilities of intercourse which, owing to 

 the gradual improvement in roads, the coaches 

 and waggons of yore were first able to give. 

 AVhen public vehicles began to ply into the 

 country, this England of ours was not only a land 

 of Avide unenclosed heaths and commons, but the 

 joeople of one county- — nay, CA^en the inhabitants 

 of toAvns and villages— Avere markedh^ difl^erent 

 in thouglit and prejudices, in sjieech and clothing, 

 from those of others ; Avbile local style in Iniilding, 

 and the A'arious building materials obtained locally, 

 gaA'e each successiA'e place that a2:)pearance of 

 something ncAV and stranii-e Avhicli the traA'eller 

 does not always meet Avitli noAvadays in far distant 

 lands. As the drainage of lakes and fens, the filling 

 u]3 of the valleys and the reduction of the hills, 



