THE ROADS 



223 



century attained a high pitch of excellence ; and were thronged 

 with traffic, coaches, postchaises, private carriages, equestrians, 

 carts and wagons: so animated a sight that our forefathers 

 built small houses called ' gazebos ' on the sides of the road, 

 where they met to take tea and watch the ever varying 

 stream. It should not be forgotten, too, that the inns, where 

 numbers of horses put up, were splendid markets for the 

 farmers' oats, hay, and straw. 



The seasons in the latter part of the eighteenth century 

 were distinguished for being frequently bad. In 1774 Gilbert 

 White wrote, ' Such a run of wet seasons as we have had the 

 last ten or eleven years would have produced a famine a cen- 

 tury or two ago.' Owing to the dearness of bread in 1767 

 riots broke out in many places, many lives were lost, and the 

 gaols were filled with prisoners.^ ^779 was, however, a year of 

 great fertility and prices were low all round : wheat '^'^s. 8d., 

 barley 26s., oats 13^-. 6d., wool I2^". a tod of 28 lb.: and 

 there were many complaints of ruined farmers and distressed 

 landlords. Though England was now becoming an importing 

 country, the amount of corn imported was insufficient to have 

 any appreciable effect on prices, which were mainly influenced 

 by the seasons, as the following instance of the fluctuations 

 caused by a single bad season (1782) testifies^: 



Prices after harvest of i'jZt.. 



£ s. d. 

 Wheat, per bushel . 10 6 



Prices after harvest of ij^i. 



£ s. d. 

 Wheat, per bushel . 5 o 



Barley „ . 29 



Dutch oats for seed i 8 



Clover seed, per cwt. in 6 



Barley „ . 72 



Dutch oats for seed 3 6 



Clover seed, per cwt. 5100 



^ Tooke, History of Prices, i. 68. It is difficult to understand the price 

 of the quartern loaf, \s. 6d. in 1766, as wheat was only 43J. \d. a quarter. 

 Prices of wheat in these years were : 



1767 

 1768 

 1769 

 1770 



s. 

 47 

 S3 

 40 



43 



1771 

 1772 

 1773 



s. 

 A7 

 50 

 51 



1774 

 1775 

 1776 



s. 

 52 

 48 

 38 



d. 

 8 



4 

 2 



1777 

 1778 

 1779 



s. 



4S 

 42 



33 



d. 

 6 

 o 

 8 



These returns differ from those of the Board of Agriculture 

 Appendix III. 

 * Annals of Agriculture, iii. 366. 



