OUR HIGHWAYS. 13 



and carts, under the direction of the parish surveyors, 

 and was given in lieu of payment of rates in money 

 by those doing the work. 



It would seem from the somewhat methodical basis 

 on which the maintenance of the highways was thus 

 established that they should thenceforth have been 

 kept in a decent state. Such, however, was far from 

 being the case, and even the turnpike or main roads 

 were long after this period in such a condition as to 

 be scarcely passable, as we may learn from accounts 

 of the journeys performed even by royalty ; though 

 some efforts were made to improve them when a 

 royal progress was about to be made along them, 

 according to an entry made in an old account-book 

 in the parish of Kingston in Surrey, in the year 1599, 

 which runs thus : ' Paid for mending the wayes when 

 the Queen went from Wimbledon to Nonsuch, 20d.' 

 What repair was done for the trifling sum ex- 

 pended does not appear. The road from Hatfield to 

 Eeading — a distance of fifty- six miles, all comprised 

 in one trust — is said to have been constructed 

 principally for Queen Elizabeth's use. 



Again, in 1703, when Prince George of Denmark 

 went from Windsor to Petworth, he was fourteen 

 hours going forty miles, the last nine of which 

 occupied six hours; while, in 1727, George II. and 

 his Queen were a whole night travelling from Kew 



