ROADS IN THE REIGNS OF MARY AND ELIZABETH. 47 



continued in operation until the reign of Ciiarles II., 

 when, owing to the increased traffic particularly about 

 London, the enactment of some new law was necessary, 

 and so from this time tolls were imposed on all persons 

 making use of the highway ; but, though the law 

 relating to tolls was in existence, it did not come into 

 positive effect until 1767, when it included all the great 

 highways throughout the kingdom, whilst Mary's Act, 

 as to the supply of labour, applied only to the cross or 

 by-roads. 



Macaulay writes that the death of Queen Elizabeth 

 was not known in remote parts of Devonshire until 

 the greater number of Englishmen had left off their 

 mourning for her. 



The little attention that was paid in former times 

 to the roads of England, is made evident by a 

 proclamation of Charles I., issued in 1629, confirming 

 one of his father's, issued in the twentieth year of his 

 reign, for the preservation of the roads of England, 

 which commands : " That no carrier or other person 

 whatsoever shall travel with any wain, cart, or carriage 

 with more than two wheels, nor above the weight of 

 twenty hundred, nor shall draw any wain, cart, or 

 carriage with more than five horses at once. ' 



The following description of roads is taken from 

 MacCulloch's " Dictionary of Commerce : " 



"It is not easy for those accustomed to travel 

 along the smooth and level roads by which every part 

 of the country is now intersected, to form an accurate 

 idea of the difficulties the traveller had to encounter a 

 century ago. Roads were then hardly formed, and in 

 summer not unfrequently consisted of the bottom of 

 rivulets. Down to the middle of the last century, 

 goods were carried on horseback. The men who 



