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CHAPTER II 



Turnpikes and their keepers — Origin of turnpike trusts — General rate 

 of tolls — Mr. Wellei-'s opinions of pike men — A turnpike letting — 

 ' Pikers ' and their methods — Sharp practice — Lessees of tolls — 

 Feasting after the fray — Management of roads. 



The great changes which have taken place in 

 almost every department in rural, and even in town, 

 life during the past fifty years is a sufficient excuse 

 for my touching upon certain customs that really 

 affected the whole body politic. Amongst many of 

 those changes none seemed to make so much 

 alteration as the abolition of turnpike gates. The 

 present generation know but little of what these 

 obstructions were, and but few even of those living 

 at the time of their existence knew their history and 

 management. I am not quite certain that my 

 description of their origin is strictly correct, but 

 having had in my early youth and manhood many 

 opportunities of studying this particular phase of 

 the genus homo — I mean turnpike gatekeepers, or 

 ' pikers,' as also of the lessees of the tolls, who held 

 many of the ' trusts ' as they were called — I am 

 enabled to give a slight sketch of this department 

 of road management, together with the origin of 

 turnpike trusts, and the methods by which they 



