1G09.] COUNTRY ROADS. 155 



end of the year 1609, when the king- was at New- 

 market. Sir Thomas Lake, writing from Newmarket, 

 December 9, 1609, to the Earl of SaHsbury, sends 

 warrants and bills for the minister's signature ; " and 

 also certain passages extracted out of Bellarmine's 

 late book, on which the king must have the council's 

 opinion, before he can be merry with them at Christ- 

 mas." '"' 



At this period the roads en route from London to 

 Newmarket were in a bad state, and greatly impeded 

 the wayfarer's proQ^ress. Essex miles were 



. T 1609. 



proverbial for their length — not that they 

 were, in reality, any longer than the mile in any other 

 part of the kingdom ; they obtained the epithet simply 

 because of the abominable state of the track. In 

 those pre-macadam days the high roads were in 

 such a state that we have no conception of the diffi- 

 culties of progression, when carriages were almost 

 unknown, and most journeys were accomplished in 

 the pigskin. But when James L decided upon erect- 

 ing a villa venatica at Newmarket, an attempt was 

 made to mend the roads between that rising village 

 and the metropolis. Thus in 1609, Thomas Nor- 

 ton, his majesty's "way maker" was paid ^29 lo^-. 

 for superintending and seeing to the repairs " of the 

 higheways leadinge to and from the Citty of Lon- 

 don to the Towns of Royston and Newmarkett, for 

 his Ma"^^ better passage in goeing and cominge to 

 his recreations in those parts." f On July 3rd a 



* State Papers, Dom., vol. 1., No. 33. 

 t Pells, Order Book, sub data, MS., P.R.O. 



