Good roads were still unknown in England. Stagecoaches carried a few
passengers at exorbitant rates, requiring an entire day to go a
distance which an express train now travels in less than an hour.
Goods were carried on pack horses or in cumbrous wagons, and so great
was the expense of transportation that farmers often let their produce
rot on the ground rather than attempt to get in to the nearest market
town.
In London a few coaches were in use, but covered chairs, carried on
poles by two men and called "sedan chairs," were the favorite
vehicles. They continued to be used for a century after this period
closes. Although London had been in great part rebuilt since the
Great Fire (1666), the streets were still very narrow, without
sidewalks, heaped with filth, and miserably lighted.