ch difficulty. For unjust and absurd
taxation to which men are accustomed is often borne far more willingly
than the most reasonable impost which is new. It was not till many
toll bars had been violently pulled down, till the troops had in many
districts been forced to act against the people, and till much blood
had been shed, that a good system was introduced. [143] By slow degrees
reason triumphed over prejudice; and our island is now crossed in every
direction by near thirty thousand miles of turnpike road.

On the best highways heavy articles were, in the time of Charles the
Second, generally conveyed from place to place by stage waggons. In the
straw of these vehicles nestled a crowd of passengers, who could not
afford to travel by coach or on horseback, and who were prevented by
infirmity, or by the weight of their luggage, from going on foot. The
expense of transmitting heavy goods in this way was enormous. From
London to Birmingham the charge was seven pounds a ton; from London to
Exeter twelve pounds a ton. [144] This was about fifteen pence a ton
for every mile, more by a third than was afterwards charged on turnpike
roads, and fifteen times what is now demanded by railway companies.
The cost of conveyance amounted to a prohibitory tax on many useful
articles. Coal in particular was never seen except in the districts
where it was produced, or in the districts to which it could be carried
by sea, and was indeed always known in the south of England by the name
of sea coal.

On byroads, and generally throughout the country north of York and west
of Exeter, goods were carried by long trains of packhorses. These strong
and patient beasts, the breed of which is now extinct, were attended by
a class of men who seem to have borne much resemblance to the Spanish
muleteers. A traveller of humble condition often found it convenient to
perform a journey mounted on a packsaddle between two baskets, under the
care of these hardy guides. The expense of this mode of conveyance was
small. But the caravan moved at a foot's pace; and in winter the cold
was often insupportable. [145]

The rich commonly travelled in their own carriages, with at least four
horses. Cotton, the facetious poet, attempted to go from London to the
Peak with a single pair, but found at Saint Albans that the journey
would be insupportably tedious, and altered his Plan. [146] A coach
and six is in our time never seen, except as part of some pageant. The