24 MY DEVON YEAR 



perish. Thus the new roads meant famine and dis- 

 aster every way. A lesser evil was feared in that 

 such comfortable locomotion must certainly render 

 men careless of their horsemanship, and thus degrade 

 a national science ; while, most terrible objection of 

 all, we may read in the Social History of the Southern 

 Counties how the increased ease of traffic and com- 

 munication between country and town was tending 

 enormously to swell certain urban populations at 

 the expense of the rural. Statistics showed the 

 gravity of this matter. It was computed that not less 

 than eighteen persons passed every week between 

 York, Chester, and Exeter ; while a similar number 

 of travellers, whose destination was London, departed 

 weekly from these cities — "which came, on the whole, 

 to the frightful number of eighteen hundred and 

 seventy-two in one year ! " Well might alarmists 

 predict the ruin of the country before such an exodus. 

 The controversy raged, and from many a pulpit, stout 

 old Tory parsons thundered against the iniquity of 

 the new ways and those who believed in them. Shall 

 you not find support for the old pack-tracks and 

 waggon-routes of puddle and rut and chaos in 

 Jeremiah? At any rate, those ancient clerics believed 

 so, and, secure in the consciousness that the prophet 

 was with them, preached many a sledge-hammer 

 discourse against improved progression. "Thus 

 saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and 

 ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and 

 walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." 



