CHAP. ll. 



KA1ILY MODES OF CONVEYAX< K. 



181 



hack sheep's wool and other raw materials of 

 manufacture. 1 



The only records of this long-superseded mode of 

 communication are now to be traced on the signboards 

 of wayside public-houses. Many of the old roads still 

 exist in Yorkshire and Lancashire ; but all that remains 

 of the former traffic is the pack-horse painted on these 

 vilhigi' signs things as retentive of odd bygone facts 

 as the picture-writing of the ancient Mexicans. 2 



individuals arc at the mercy of two 

 intoxicated brutes ?'' 



1 The author of the ' Original ' 

 says: " I have by tradition the fol- 

 lowing particulars of the mode of 

 carrying on tin- home trade by one of 

 the principal merchants of Manchester, 

 who was born at the commencement 

 of the last century, and who realised 

 a sufficient tort une to keep a carriage 

 when not half-a-dozen were kept in 

 the town by persons connected with 

 business. He sent the manufactures 

 of the place into Nottinghamshire, 

 Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and the 

 intervening counties, and principally 

 took in exchange feathers from Lin- 

 colnshire and malt from Cambridge- 

 shin; and Nottinghamshire. All his 

 commodities were conveyed on pack- 

 horses, and he was from home the 

 greater part of every year, performing 

 his journeys entirely on horseback. 

 His balances were received in guineas, 

 and were carried with him in his sad- 

 dle-bags. He was exposed to the 

 vicissitudes of the weather, to great 

 labour and fatigue, and to constant 

 danger. In Lincolnshire lie travelled 

 chietly along bridle-ways, through 

 fields where frequent gibbets warned 

 him of his perils, and where flocks of 

 wild-fowl continually darkened the 



air. Business carried on in this man- 

 ner required a combination of per- 

 sonal attention, courage, and physical 

 strength not to be hoped ibr in a 

 deputy ; and a merchant then led a 

 much more severe and irksome life 

 than a bagman afterwards, and still 

 more than a ' traveller ' of the present 

 day. In the earlier days of the mer- 

 chant above-mentioned the wine-mer- 

 chant who supplied Manchester re- 

 sided at Preston, then always called 

 Proud Preston, because exclusively 

 inhabited by gentry. The wine was 

 carried on horses, and a gallon was 

 considered a large order. Men in 

 business confined themselves generally 

 to punch and ale, using wine only as 

 a medicine, or on extraordinary occa- 

 sions ; so that a considerable trades- 

 man somewhat injured his credit 

 amongst his neighbours by being so 

 extravagant as to send to a tavern for 

 wine to entertain a London customer." 

 2 Earl of Ellesmere's 'Essays,' p. 

 244. In the curious collection of old 

 coins at the Guildhall there are several 

 halt] enny tokens issued by the pro- 

 prietors of inns bearing the sign of the 

 pack-horse. Some of these would in- 

 dicate that pack-horses were kept for 

 hire. \Ve append a couple of illus- 

 trations of these curious old coins. 



PACK-HORSE HALFPENNY TOKENS. 

 [From the G uildhall Collection ] 



