LAST DAYS OF ROAD TRAVELLING. 71 



ment, a period in the history of roads when engineers 

 of the highest skill, intelligence, and experience, were 

 employed by Government in the construction of the 

 highways ; then, when, owing to the introduction of 

 railways, the high-roads were no longer the great 

 avenues of traffic and internal communication through- 

 out the kingdom, they fell into a species of disrepute ; 

 the infinite care which had been lavished on them 

 was no longer deemed necessary, and they became 

 as we now see them, left in the charge of Highway 

 Boards inexperienced in their management, and to 

 surveyors utterly without knowledge of road construc- 

 tion and maintenance, or too indolent to learn. 



A very great and remarkable change therefore 

 has taken place in country roads since the palmy 

 days of coaching. Roads, fifty years ago, were 

 avenues by which all travellers and merchandise 

 were conveyed from one part of the kingdom to 

 another, either by coach or waggon, except they 

 were very wealthy persons, in which case they travelled 

 in their own carriages, and were supplied with fresh 

 horses at the various inns at which they stopped on 

 their Way ; but this was an extravagant way of 

 travelling, very much the same as taking a special 

 train. The great high-roads just before the advent 

 of the locomotive were kept to perfection. Large 

 gangs of road-menders worked at intervals along 

 their whole length, and they were wider than they 

 are now ; the space we so frequently see covered with 

 grass alongside the road was formerly a portion of 

 the roadway. 



■ The great main roads in the later days of 

 coaching, just before the stage-coach was super- 

 seded by the locomotive, must have presented 



