36 



coveted was accordingly brought to his door on pack-mules by travel- 

 ing merchants. The vocation of a merchant, in its large, modern sense, 

 was hardly known, and the trade of even the most considerable towns 

 was, in all respects, very restricted. Thus the old foot-Avay streets still 

 served all necessary requirements tolerably well. 



As the advance of civilization continued, however, this disinclination 

 to the exchange of service, of course, gave way; demands became 

 more varied, and men of all classes were forced to take their place 

 in the general organization of society in communities. In process of 

 time the enlargement of popular freedom, the spread of knowledge 

 by books, the abatement of religious persecutions, the voyages of 

 circumnavigators, and finally the opening of America, India and 

 the gold coast of Africa to European commerce, so fed the mercan- 

 tile inclinations, that an entirely new class of towns, centres of manu- 

 facturing and of trade, grew upon the sites of the old ones. To these 

 the wealthy and powerful were drawn, no longer for protection, but for 

 the enjoyment of the luxuries which they found in them, while the 

 more enterprising of the lower classes crowded into them to " seek their 

 fortune." 



SECOND STAGE OF STREET ARRANGEMENTS. 



Wagons gradually took the place of pack-trains in the distribution 

 of goods through the country, and, as one man coidd manage a heavy 

 load, when it was once stowed, as well as a light one, the wagons were 

 made very large and strong, and required the employment of many 

 horses. 



In compai-atively few town-streets could two of these wheeled mer- 

 chantmen, with the enormous hamper they carried on each side, pass 

 each other. The seats and hucksteries of slight wood-work with which 

 the streets had been lined were swept away; but, as the population 

 rapidly increased, while the house accommodation was so limited that 

 its density, in the city of London, for instance, was probably three times 

 as great as at present, any attempt to further widen the streets for the 

 convenience of the wagoners had to encounter the strongest resistance 

 from the house-holders. 



Thus, 'without any material enlargement, the character of the streets 

 was much changed. They frequently became quite unfit to walk in, 

 the more so because they were used as the common place of deposit 

 for all manner of rubbish and filth thrown out of the houses which 

 was not systematically removed from them. 



Although London then occupied not a fiftieth part of the ground 

 which it does now, and green fields remained which had been carefully 

 preserved for the practice of archery within a comparatively short dis- 



