INTRODUCTION.

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channel of the water being, when not flooded, thetrack chosen as the most level and easiest to travelin. Even between the largest cities the means oftravelling were but little superior. In I678 anagreement was made to run a coach between Edin­ burgh and Glasgow , a distance of forty-one miles,which was to be drawn by six horses, and to per-form the journey from Edinburgh to Glasgow andback again in six days. Even so late as the middleof the last century, it took a day and a half for thestage coacli to travel from Edinburgh to Glasgow ,a journey which is now accomplished in four and ahalf or five hours.

“ So late as 1763 there was but one stage coachfrom Edinburgh to London , and it set out onlyonce a month, taking from twelve to fourteen daysto perform this journey! At present, notwith-standing the immense intercourse between the twocities, by means of steam packets, smacks, &c., sixor seven coaches set out each day from the one orthe other, performing the journey in from forty-fiveto forty-eight hours.”*

Mr. Arthur Young, in his Six Months’ Tour,published in 1770, gives the following account ofsome of the roads in the north of England: —“ To Wigan . Turnpike. — I know not in thewhole range of language terms sufficiently ex-pressive to describe this infernal road. Let memost seriously caution all travellers who may acci-

* M'Culloch’s Dictionary of Commerce, art. Roads.