48 THE COACHING AGE. 



purpose of making alterations and improvements, etc., 

 commencing at the Wellington Inn at the foot of 

 Highgate Hill farthest from London, and proceeding 

 thence to Barnet, omitting the street through that 

 town, but comprising a portion of the road leading to 

 Hatfield, and past thf ' Highstone ' at Hadley, which 

 was erected to commemorate the battle of Barnet, as 

 appears by the inscription on it. The Great Northern 

 Eailway passes not far from the spot, and when 

 the ground was being dug up for its construction, 

 weapons of various kinds were occasionally met with, 

 and also some old articles in the pottery of the 

 period. 



The record on the stone is to the effect that the 

 battle of Barnet, between Edward IV. and Guy, Earl 

 of Warwick, was fought there in 1471, and that the 

 earl was defeated and slain. 



Probably in the year 1831, when the last Act of 

 Parliament relating to the Holyhead Eoad was 

 obtained, there w^as little if any idea that there would 

 ever be a railway taking all the traffic off the road, 

 including the old broad-wheeled waggon, as the Act 

 prescribes the tolls to be taken in the various cases 

 where ' the fellies of the wheels of the waggon, wain, 

 dray, cart, caravan, or other such -like carriage, by 

 whatever name the same now is or may hereafter be 

 called or described, are of the breadth of six inches 



