ed about the land with much the same freedom and
stateliness of the state coaches which one sees to-day in pageants,
as relics of a past monarchical splendour.

Louis XI. created the "_Service des Postes_" in France, which made
new demands upon the now more numerous routes and roadways, and Louis
XII., Francois I., Henri II., and Charles IX., all made numerous
ordinances for the policing and maintenance of them.

Henri IV., and his minister Sully, built many more of these great
lines of communication, and thus gave the first real and tangible aid
to the commerce and agriculture of the kingdom. He was something of
an aesthetic soul too, this Henri of Bearn, for he was the originator
of the scheme to make the great roadways of France tree-shaded
boulevards, which in truth is what many of them are to-day. This
monarch of love, intrigues, religious reversion, and strange oaths
passed the first (and only, for the present is simply a continuance
thereof) _ordonnance_ making the planting of trees along the national
highroads compulsory on the local authorities.

Under Louis XIV., Colbert continued the good work and put up the
first mile-stone, or whatever its equivalent was in that day,
measuring from the Parvis de Notre Dame at Paris. Some of these Louis
XIV. _bornes_, or stones, still exist, though they have, of course,
been replaced throughout by kilometre stones.

The foregoing tells in brief of the natural development of the
magnificent roads of France. Their history does not differ greatly
from the development of the other great European lines of travel,
across Northern Italy to Switzerland, down the Rhine valley and,
branching into two forks, through Holland and through Belgium to the
North Sea.

[Illustration: On French Roads]

In England the main travel routes run north, east, south, and west
from London as a radiating centre, and each took, in the later
coaching days, such distinctive names as "The Portsmouth Road," "The
Dover Road," "The Bath Road," and "The Great North Road." Their
histories have been written in fascinating manner, so they are only
referred to here.

It is in France, one may almost say, that automobile touring begins
and ends, in that it is more practicable and enjoyable there; and so
_la belle France_ continually projects itself into one's horizon when
viewing the subject of automobilism.

It may be that there are persons living to-day who regret the passing
of the good old times when t