BY SEVERN, TAFF, AND TOWY 145 



and fifty thousand souls. The postal staff, which at 

 the time of my visit consisted of eight men and a boy, 

 now numbers more than four hundred men, and 

 nearly a couple of hundred boys. The coal which 

 lies in the hills behind, and the docks which fringe 

 the shore, are, however, more eloquent of progress 

 than any postal facts which I can adduce. 



In 'Forty Years at the Post-Office,' I am con- 

 scious of having paid less attention to the posts of 

 South Wales than to those of the northern part of 

 the Principality. Having now got as far as Cardiff, 

 let me handsomely repair my fault. 



That roads in South Wales were in a very bad state 

 up to the end of the last century is of course well 

 known. An authority* states that 



' The earlier the date of the roads, the worse they were planned. 

 This was the case throughout the Idngdom. When the land was 

 originally enclosed, the top of the hills being less fertile than the 

 bottom, the road was generally pushed there by the landowners.' 



Mr. Howells, a witness from Wales, created great 

 amusement before a Pioyal Commission which 

 examined the question of highways about a hundred 

 years ago. When asked what he knew of the condi- 

 tion of the roads in Wales, he replied that there were 

 none. ' Then how do you travel ?' asked the 

 astonished chairman of the Commission. ' In ditches 

 at the bottom of the valleys, my lord,' was the 

 reply. 



Towards the end of tlie century the main roads of 

 ■^ Agriculture, etc., in Wales, 1801. 



10 



