CHAP. I. 



SMEATON'S BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION. 



and the river side, through certain gardens, then, as 

 now, named " The Calls," but gardens no longer. 



The clothing trade of the town was then so small that 

 the cloth market was held in the open air upon the 

 bridge, where the cloth was exposed for sale on the 

 parapets. The homely entertainment of the clothiers 

 at that day was a " brigend shot," consisting of a 

 noggin of porridge and a pot of ale, followed by a 

 twopenny trencher of meat. Down to the year 1730, 

 the bridge was so narrow that only one cart could pass 

 over it at a time. But the number of wheeled vehicles 

 then in use was so small that the inconvenience was 

 scarcely felt. The whole of the cloth was brought to 

 market 011 men's and horses' backs. 1 Coals were in like 

 manner carried from the pits on horseback, the stated 

 weight of a " horse-pack " being eighteen stone, or equal 

 to two hundredweight and a quarter. 2 In the rural 

 districts of Yorkshire manure was also carried a-field on 

 horses' backs, and sometimes on women's backs, while 

 the men sat at home knitting. 3 The cloth-packs were 

 carried by the " bell-horses," or pack-horses ; and this 

 mode of conveyance continued until towards the end of 

 last century. Scatcherd says the pack-horses only ceased 

 to travel about the year 1794. 



The Leeds men, it seems, were not considered so 

 "quick" as those of Bradford, then a much smaller 

 place and comparatively of the dimensions of a village ; 

 and it was long before they provided themselves with a 



1 This is clear from an allusion 

 made by Thoresby to an Act passed 

 in 1714, regulating the manufacture 

 of broad-cloth, by which the length 

 was increased from four or six-and- 

 twenty to sixty and even seventy 

 yards, " to the great oppression," says 

 Thoresby, " both of man and beast 

 in carriage." 



2 Smeaton's ' Eeports,' vol. iii., p. 

 410. Mr. Smeaton says that before 

 the invention of rail or waggon roads 



at Newcastle, " all the coals that were 

 carried down to the ships must have 

 been conveyed on horses' backs." 

 What was called " a bowl of coals," 

 was reckoned a horse-load ; and in 

 Yorkshire (where the first waggon- 

 way was laid within Smeaton's recol- 

 lection) the load of coals and the 

 " horse-pack " were readily substi- 

 tuted the one for the other. 



3 Brockett's 'Glossary of North 

 Country Words.' Newcastle, 1825. 



