184 



lished, it is evident that, before we can realize the degree in which 

 they were likely to approach the ultimatum of civilized requirement, 

 we need to know more exactly what the inconveniences in question 

 amounted to. 



It appears, then, that the imperfect pavements, never having been 

 adequately revised since the days of hand-barrow and pack-horse 

 transportation, were constantly being misplaced, and the ground 

 worn into deep ruts, by the crushing weight of the wheels ; the slops 

 and offal matters thrown out of the houses, were combined with the 

 dung of the horses and the mud, to make a tenacious puddle, through 

 which the people on foot had to drag their way, in constant appre- 

 hension of being run down or crushed against the wall. In the prin- 

 cipal streets strong posts were planted at intervals, behind which 

 active men were accustomed to dodge for safety as the wagons came 

 upon them. Coaches had been introduced in the time of Elizabeth, 

 but though simple, strong, and rudely-hung vehicles, they were con- 

 sidered to be very dangerous in the streets, and their use within the 

 town was for some time forbidden. Sedan chairs for all ordinary 

 purposes superseded them, and for a long time had been in common 

 use by all except the poorer classes, upon every occasion of going 

 into the streets. When George the Third went in the state coach to 

 open parliament, the streets through which he passed were previously 

 prepared by laying faggots in the ruts to make the motion easier. 

 There was little or no sewerage or covered drainage, and heavy storms 

 formed gullies of the ruts, and often flooded the cellars, destroying 

 a great deal of merchandise. 



This was the condition in which, after several hundred years, the 

 town had been left by the transformation of the passages, first 

 occurring between the huts of the entrenched camp of a tribe of 

 barbarians, from the serviceable foot-ways of the early middle ages, 

 to the unserviceable wagon-ways of the generation but one before 

 the last. 



THIRD STAGE OF STREET ARRANGEMENTS. 



To remedy its evils, in the construction of new streets and the 

 reconstruction of old, the original passage for people on foot was 

 restored, but it was now split through the middle and set back, with 

 the house fronts on each side, so as to admit of the introduction of a 

 special road-way for horses and wheels at a lower level. A curb 

 was placed to guard the foot-way from the wheels ; gutters were 

 used to collect the liquid and floating filth, and sewers were con- 

 structed which enabled the streams thus formed to be taken out of 



