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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
11
A
Yorkshire
squire,
Thomas
Kirke,
who
travelled
in
Scotland
in
1679,
gave
a
better
account
of
the
roads;
but
his
opinion
may
have
been
merely
relative,
for
travelling
showmen
to
this
day
prefer
the
roads
in
the
south
of
Scotland
to
those
in
the
north
of
England,
on
account
of
their
greater
hardness;
and
this
derives,
no
doubt,
from
the
more
adamantine
material
used
in
the
repair
of
the
Scotch
roads.
This
traveller
wrote:
"The
highways
in
Scotland
are
tolerably
good,
which
is
the
greatest
comfort
a
traveller
meets
with
amongst
them.
The
Scotch
gentry
generally
travel
from
one
friend's
house
to
another;
so
seldom
require
a
change-house
(inn).
Their
way
is
to
hire
a
horse
and
a
man
for
twopence
a
mile;
they
ride
on
the
horse
thirty
or
forty
miles
a-day,
and
the
man
who
is
his
guide
foots
it
beside
him,
and
carries
his
luggage
to
boot."
Another
visitor
to
Scotland
in
1702,
named
Morer,
thus
describes
the
roads:
"The
truth
is,
the
roads
will
hardly
allow
these
conveniences"
(meaning
stage-coaches,
which
did
not
as
yet
exist
in
Scotland),
"which
is
the
reason
that
the
gentry,
men
and
women,
choose
rather
to
use
their
horses.
However,
their
great
men
often
travel
with
coach-and-six,
but
with
so
little
caution,
that,
besides
their
other
attendance,
they
have
a
lusty
running
footman
on
each
side
of
the
coach,
to
manage
and
keep
it
up
in
rough
places."[1]
It
might
be
supposed
that
the
roads
leading
from
Windsor,
where
one
of
the
royal
residences
was,
would
have
been
kept
in
a
tolerable
state,
so
as
to
secure
the
Sovereign
some
comfort
in
travelling.
But
their
condition
seems
to
have
been
no
better
than
that
of
roads
elsewhere.
An
account
of
a
journey
made
in
1703
by
Prince
George
of
Denmark,
the
husband
of
Queen
Anne,
from
Windsor
to
Petworth,
runs
as
follows:--"The
length
of
way
was
only
forty
miles,
but
fourteen
hours
were
consumed
in
traversing
it;
while
almost
every
mile
was
signalised
by
the
overturn
of
a
carriage,
or
its
temporary
swamping
in
the
mire.
Even
the
royal
chariot
would
have
fared
no
better
than
the
rest
had
it
not
been
for
the
relays
of
peasants
who
poised
and
kept
it
erect
by
strength
of
arm,
and
shouldered
it
forward
the
last
nine
miles,
in
which
tedious
operation
six
good
hours
were
consumed."
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