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earthly purpose ; but so my lord wills, and we depart from Bristol, Mrs. 
Barry in her little cart, and Dame Katherin trudging on the road-side. 
But why walk, with only one in the cart? It is hard to fancy such a 
tiny vehicle that would not allow room for two old ladies. Or, when it 
had to be purchased, why had not one been selected that would accom- 
modate two? Well, as our heroine now takes to the tramp, what time 
are we to allow for the journey, say about 120 miles? When at Inchiquin, 
once a week she walked eight or ten miles, but the present, we infer, 
was daily continuous walking. What the state of the roads then were, 
it is not easy for us to imagine, when eighty years ago the coach from 
London to Hitchen, distance thirty-four miles, took twelve hours to get 
over the ground. Thus far we have considered the difficulties. Come 
we now to dangers, The insecurity on the English roads is of historic 
notoriety. Latimer, preaching before Edward VI., 22nd March, 1549, 
touches on the subject in terms which evince how general it was— 
‘‘What, princes, thieves? Had they a standing at Shooter’s Hill, or 
Standgate Hole to take a purse? Did they stand by the highway side ? 
Did they rob or break open any man’s house? No, no; that is a gross 
kind of thieving. They were princes; they had a prince-like kind of 
thieving. They all love bribes.” 
As to the unsafety of the English high roads at the end of Queen 
Elizabeth’s reign, we have the contemporary evidence of Fynes Mory- 
son. In his Precepts for Travellers, Part iii., Book i., after detailing the 
dangers of foreign travel, at page 28 we come to those at home— 
‘‘Theeves in England are more common than in any other place, so far 
as I have observed or heard, but having taken purses by the highway, 
they seldome or never kill those they rob.” In the preceding page, Ger- 
many, he recommends the stranger, if assaulted by thieves, to ‘‘defend 
himselfe the best hee can, for they alwaies kill those whom they rob.” So 
that, while the purse was in greater danger in England than anywhere 
else, life wasless so. Rather cold comfort for our old Countess and her de- 
crepit daughter ; but still some, comparatively. Under any circumstances, 
whether continuous or at intervals, the Countess’s walk from Bristol to 
London would have required twelve days at least; and with Morryson’s 
report as to the abundance of ‘‘ thieves,” there can be no doubt these 
“unprotected females” would have been plundered a dozen times suc- 
cessively, if the first gentlemen of the road who met them had left them 
anything but their skins; and when eased of their money, little cart, 
and horse, if not of most of their clothes, how were they to proceed on 
their journey to London? If Lord Leycester had studied how to com- 
pose a tissue of deepening improbabilities, I do not think he could have 
exceeded those I have now submitted for consideration, and so we 
dismiss this part of his gossip. It is difficult in these days to realize to 
our thoughts the discomforts and dangers of travelling in England, even 
at the close of the last century. In the very neighbourhood of London, 
at that time, no person unarmed could pass with any safety over Houns- 
low Heath (across which the Bristol road to London ran), Bagshot 
Heath, Shooter’s Hill, Standgate Hole, Finchley Common, and Wim- 
