Roads
All roads lead to London and have done so for many a century, and
so we find, as we should expect to do, that roads from all parts of
the country converge towards it like the spokes of a wheel to its
centre. The same sort of thing is seen in all towns of any size.
Cross roads connect these main roads, and the nearer we are to the
town the greater is the number of these, and they are often as busy
and as important as the old main roads. But as we get away from the
towns into the more rural districts, the lesser roads which connect
the villages and hamlets with each other become fewer, more winding
and straggling. There are also green lanes and field paths, and it
is by following these, rather than the high roads, that the real
beauties of the country can be seen. A person dashing along the
main road in a motor-car, on a motor-cycle or a bicycle misses much
which a man on foot, who is not in a tremendous hurry, is able to
see and enjoy.
Not very long after the Romans left Britain, and the raids of
Saxon tribes began to be felt, the roads, which during the Roman
times had been kept in good repair, were neglected. Some of them
gradually dropped out of use, and in the course of time grass,
brushwood, and trees grew close up to the track and in places
covered it, and it became in time a "lost" road. The roads which
remained in use, through neglect grew worse and worse, and all
through the Middle Ages very little was done to mend them.
Travellers for the most part journeyed on horseback, and trains
of mules and packhorses transported goods. Later on heavy wagons,
drawn by teams of eight, ten, or a dozen horses were used, and
frequently extra teams had to be hitched on at places where they
got into difficulties and came to grief owing to the badness of
the road. Often these long trains of wagons had to be "convoyed"
by bands of armed men on horseback. To repair "foul and noyous
highways" was regarded as a work of mercy, and we often find
good people in the Middle Ages leaving money in their wills to
be bestowed on the repair of a part of a highway. The religious
houses in many cases were expected to keep up good roads in their
own neighbourhood. There was once a hermit, who lived at Highgate,
near London. He, at his own cost, had gravel dug from the top of
Highgate Hill, and with it made a causeway down in the "hollow
way" between Highgate and Islington. In the fourteenth century
the Bishop of London made a way through his park at Highgate Hill
across Finchley Common to Whetstone, near Barnet, because the
highway was in such a dreadful condition. Those who used this road
had to pay a toll.
[Illustration: _Cart, Fourteenth Century_
_From an illuminated manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford_]
After the dissolution of the monasteries the various parishes were
expected to look after the parts of the great roads which ran
through them, the landlords and tenants being required, according
to the size of their holdings, to furnish men and horses, wagons
and barrows, to work on the highways for so many days in each year.
But for some centuries the work was done in a very shiftless,
casual manner. The people in the parishes grumbled and did as
little as they could, for, as they said, it was not they who
wore out the roads, but the travellers from a distance who came
backwards and forwards with all their heavy loads.
Traffic increased as the time went on, and it became necessary to
provide for the wants of the many travellers along the roads. The
old villages in very many cases stood away from the highways, and
so we find new hamlets springing up on the main roads, and some of
the new towns, like Uxbridge, Brentford, and Edgware in Middlesex,
and Buntingford in Hertfordshire, had their origin in this way.
Similar instance will be found in most other counties.
In Queen Elizabeth's reign the roads all over the country were bad;
in some parts, owing to the nature of the soil, particularly bad.
In the south, in the Weald district, the iron workers were ordered
to mend their roads with the cinders from their furnaces, as the
stone found in that neighbourhood was too soft for the purpose. But
the roads did not greatly improve although the amount of traffic
upon them increased.
Coaches came into use for long-distance travelling in the reign of
Charles II. One began to run regularly between London and Bath in
1667--a three-days' journey if no accidents happened--and another
started running from London to Portsmouth in the following year.
About the middle of the eighteenth century every week there passed
through the Borough from London on the way south, a hundred and
forty-three stage-coaches, a hundred and twenty-one wagons, and
a hundred and ninety-six carts and caravans. That was only the
out-going traffic, there was quite as much traffic returning to the
City.
It was about the year 1754 that a great improvement of roads began
through the passing of the Turnpike Acts. The idea was that those
people who actually used the roads should bear the cost of their
upkeep, and companies, or "trusts", were formed to look after
certain roads, have them properly made, and kept in repair. At
certain distances along the road, a few miles apart, gates were
set across the road with a little house by each, in which the
toll-gate keeper lived, whose duty it was to open and close the
gate to travellers and take the specified toll. Different kinds of
vehicles had to pay different sums as toll, and so had flocks of
sheep and droves of cattle when being moved from one part of the
country to another. People actually living in the neighbourhood had
certain rights to use the way toll free. The toll-gate keeper was
usually a "crusty" person--a sort of spider lying in wait to catch
flies--and very often when a traveller drove up to the gate in a
hurry, anxious to get through, the toll-man would be particularly
slow in opening the gates and in giving change.
[Illustration: _A Toll-gate, early Nineteenth Century. From a
contemporary painting_]
Most of the main roads were thus improved, but not all of them. As
late as the year 1797 the turnpike road through Uxbridge, which
carried a very large traffic, was very bad indeed. There was
only one track which could be used in winter and that was eight
inches deep in slush and mud. Still, on the whole, the roads were
improving and coaches were able to travel more quickly.
Mail-coaches were put on the road in 1785, and they increased
in speed and in numbers as the years went on, until just before
the advent of railways. Over ninety coaches a day passed through
Whetstone Turnpike, near Barnet; and in 1821 there were coaches
which did the seventy-two miles between London and Portsmouth in
ten hours. It was the same on all the great roads, and the coaches
were only one part of the traffic.
In the "good old coaching days", noblemen and great folk travelled
the long distances in their family coaches in great state, attended
by servants; some riding before and after on horseback, and some
hanging on behind the coach. Other wealthy people used to travel
"post", and the carriages used were called "post-chaises". These
were drawn by four or six horses, with a "post-boy" or postilion
to each pair of horses. No matter how old he might be he was
always called a post-boy. A great many old-established inns all
over the country are still called "posting-houses". At these
inns such carriages and horses to draw them, and post-boys to
drive them, could be hired. These houses were about ten miles
apart, and that distance was called a "stage"; and in posting the
horses were changed at each "house" along the road. Nowadays, by
the name posting-house we understand an inn where vehicles and
horses can be hired; but probably not one of them could turn out
a post-chaise, four horses and a couple of post-boys, at five
minutes' notice.
[Illustration: _Coach, early Nineteenth Century_]
The railways gradually drove the coaches and the post-chaises off
the roads, but the introduction of cycles in the last quarter of
the nineteenth century, and the motor-car at the beginning of the
twentieth century have revived the use of the highways for traffic,
and there is a great time for the old roads just ahead of us to-day.
There were many varieties of inns, often quite close together, from
the big posting-houses down to the obscure little ale-house. These
houses accommodated various classes of traffic. Even now, if you
live near to one of the big main roads you will notice that some
wagons draw up at particular houses on the road for "refreshment
of man and beast"--the hay-carts have their own special stopping
places, and so, too, have other sorts of heavy traffic; and they
have kept to the custom of the road from one generation to another.
[Illustration: THE NEW INN, GLOUCESTER From an engraving
published in 1830. This building is still in use.]
The old inns are often very picturesque buildings and there are
some famous ones in every county. The curious names by which they
are known is a study in itself, and quite an interesting one.
Many of the old inns fell on evil days as the introduction of
railways gradually absorbed most of the road traffic, and many
of them were closed or turned into private houses. In the last
quarter of the nineteenth century life on the ancient highways
began to revive through the introduction of cycling as a means
of locomotion. Cycling became very common, and, by specially
catering for cyclists a good number of these old inns came again to
prosperous times. With the dawn of the twentieth century motor-cars
came on the road, and still further brought the highways into use.
But these raised "clouds of dust" and tore up the roads, and it
became a great problem how to make the roads suitable for this new
sort of traffic, and a good deal was done which improved their
surface greatly. Then came the Great War, and a continuous stream
of heavier motor-traffic had to be put upon the roads throughout
the country to supply the huge camps at home and overseas, and the
many new towns which have sprung up in districts which, a few years
ago, were quiet, unfrequented places. There is an enormous amount
of work to be done now in re-making the present roads and tracks,
and to provide for many new ones as well. We now realize that rapid
means of transit for both people and goods will have to be provided
on a far larger scale than we have hitherto attempted, if the
resources of the country are to be properly developed. Roads, more
roads, better roads are an urgent necessity.