THE HORSE. 49 



THE ROAD HORSE. 



This animal was for a long period used by travellers. 

 Our ancestors did not travel in carriages, or carry their 

 goods in carts ; their horses conveyed themselves and 

 their merchandize. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 

 some persons were robbed in open day, within the 

 hundred of Beyntesh, in Berkshire j and it is said, " they 

 were clothiers, and yet travailed not withe the great 

 trope of clothiers ; they also carried their money 

 openly e in wallets upon their saddles." Here we see 

 the common mode of conveyance at that time, and the 

 necessity for travelling in company. 



On two persons making the journey from Glasgow to 

 London, on horseback, in 1739, they found no turnpike- 

 road till they came to Grantham, within one hundred 

 and ten miles of the metropolis. From time to time, 

 they met with strings of packhorses, from thirty to 

 forty in a gang ; still the common mode of transporting 

 goods from one part of the country to another. The 

 leading horse of the troop carried a bell, to give 

 warning to passengers coming in an opposite direction ; 

 and when these trains of horses came up with their packs, 

 the travellers were compelled, from the narrowness of 



