PIKES AND MILESTONES. 77 



public or tlie Government in some shape at some time 

 or other. It is needless to say that in many instances 

 these hopes have proved altogether delusive. As 

 you travel along any of the main-roads from London 

 — north, south, east, or west — you will every here 

 and there come to a small square brick building, 

 probably a mile or some miles from any town, and a 

 considerable distance from even a village. The 

 bicyclist or youthful pedestrian wonders what on 

 earth can have induced any man to erect a cottage 

 in such an out-of-the-way place, and bewilders him- 

 self in considering what advantage is likely to accrue 

 to any person occupying a cottage in such a locality. 

 This probably leads him to make inquiry of the 

 inhabitant, or if, as is not unlikely, the cottage is 

 locked up, and the inhabitant gone to his daily labour, 

 resort is had to the first person met along the road. 

 The inquirer is then informed that it was originally 

 built for a turnpike-house, and that many years since 

 a turnpike-gate — or, as it will doubtless be called, 

 ' a pike ' — used to stand there. All traces, however, 

 of anything like a gate, together with the gate-posts, 

 and board containing a table of the tolls which 

 used to be taken, have long ago been removed, the 

 cottage alone standing to mark the locality of the de- 

 parted pike. By-the-bye, while mentioning the table 

 of toUs, it has often occurred to me what an apparent 



