248 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



under which EngHshmen travelled during the last 

 century, neither can we picture to ourselves the 

 various infinitesimal details of dress, manner, and 

 custom that made that period so foreign to the 

 present. 



The aspect of affairs throughout England and 

 Europe was vastly different from what it is now. 

 In 1788 George III. was King of England, Louis XVI. 

 was insecurely seated on the throne of France, and 

 George Washington was President of the United 

 States, America having declared her independence, 

 and there is no doubt but that the States would 

 belonof to us now had it not been for the ridiculous 

 and obstinate policy of Farmer George. France, 

 shortly after this, was in the throes of her great 

 Revolution, with all its attendant horror, terror, 

 blasphemy, and anarchy, during which time the 

 F"rench ports were blockaded to the English, and 

 those Englishmen who cared, or who could afford, 

 to travel, were almost compelled by necessity to do 

 so in their own country. In 1788 William Pitt, 

 although only in his twenty-fourth year, was at the 

 head of the English Government, fulfilling the duties 

 of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer, Lord Thurlow was Lord Chancellor, 

 Lord Carmarthen was Home Secretary, and Lord 

 Sydney Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 

 This was the younger Pitt's first Administration. 



One hundred years ago was not altogether the 

 pleasantest time that an Englishman could have 

 selected for a sojourn upon this planet. Only a few 

 years previously the American War had been brought 

 to a close, and White, in his celebrated " History of 

 Selborne," says that " the summer that followed 



