478 
At an early period, local inter-communication was ex- 
tremely difficult and extremely slow, for people in general 
had to travel on foot, and their travelling was surrounded 
with danger. We know that not many years ago, before 
stage-coaches were generally introduced, the whole popula- 
tion of a village or small town remained so closely attached 
to the spot, that any one of them who had visited a distant 
village or two, was looked upon as a remarkable personage. 
Much more was this the case at the remote period of which 
we are speaking. Under such circumstances, the internal 
commercial relations of a country were very small. At a 
later period of the middle ages, the inconvenience arising 
from this circumstance was in a small degree obviated by the 
establishment of fairs, to which merchants and manufacturers 
repaired at certain periods of the year, and at which people 
bought and laid up sufficient stores for the interval. But 
before the establishment of these fairs, a great part of the 
trade and manufactures of a country was in the hands of 
wandering dealers or workmen, such as in more modern 
times are termed pedlars, a name probably derived from the 
circumstance that these dealers went on foot. Men who 
sold certain articles, or who practised certain arts, wandered 
thus over an immense extent of territory ; they received to 
a certain degree the same kind of protection as minstrels, 
and passed often from one country to another. Their arrival 
was looked forward to with anxiety by those who needed 
their services, and who had saved money for purchases, or 
collected materials for work. Thus, even in greater matters, 
people prepared their malt and other ingredients for the time 
when the itinerant brewer came round and made their ale ; 
and, after gunpowder came into use, each town or great lord 
expected the visit at a certain period of the man skilful in 
making it, at whose arrival they had the materials ready. 
So people who had articles of any kind that needed mending, 
