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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
16
The
necessity
for
a
better
class
of
road
cannot
but
have
forced
itself
upon
the
Government
of
the
country
from
time
to
time,
if
not
for
the
benefit
of
travellers
and
to
encourage
trade,
at
any
rate
to
secure
a
rapid
movement
of
troops
in
times
of
disturbance
or
rebellion;
yet
we
find
the
state
of
streets
in
the
metropolis,
and
roads
in
the
country,
as
in
1750,
thus
described
in
Blackie's
'Comprehensive
History
of
England':
"When
the
only
public
approaches
to
Parliament
were
King
Street
and
Union
Street,
these
were
so
wretchedly
paved,
that
when
the
King
went
in
state
to
the
House,
the
ruts
had
to
be
filled
up
with
bundles
of
fagots
to
allow
the
royal
coach
a
safe
transit.
While
the
art
of
street-paving
was
thus
so
imperfect,
that
of
road-making
was
equally
defective,
so
that
the
country
visitor
to
the
metropolis,
and
its
dangers
of
coach-driving,
had
generally
a
sufficient
preparative
for
the
worst
during
his
journey
to
town.
This
may
easily
be
understood
from
the
fact
that,
so
late
as
1754,
few
turnpikes
were
to
be
seen
after
leaving
the
vicinity
of
London,
for
200
miles
together,
although
it
had
been
made
felony
to
pull
them
down.
These
roads,
indeed,
were
merely
the
produce
of
compulsory
pauper
labour,
contributed
by
the
different
parishes;
and,
like
all
such
work,
it
was
performed
in
a
very
perfunctory
manner."
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