pies of the Colloquies of Erasmus,
and actually sold them all. He understood the signs of the times.

[Sidenote: State of England at the close of the seventeenth century.]
From this digression on parties and policy in England, let us again
return to special details, descending for that purpose to the close of
the seventeenth century. For a long time London had been the most
populous capital in Europe; yet it was dirty, ill built, without
sanitary provisions. The deaths were one in twenty-three each year; now,
in a much more crowded population, they are not one in forty. Much of
the country was still heath, swamp, warren. [Sidenote: Wild state of the
country.] Almost within sight of the city was a tract twenty-five miles
round nearly in a state of nature; there were but three houses in it.
Wild animals roamed here and there. It is incidentally mentioned that
Queen Anne, on a journey to Portsmouth, saw a herd of five hundred red
deer. With such small animals as the marten and badger, found
everywhere, there was still seen occasionally the wild bull.

[Sidenote: Locomotion: the roads and carriages.] Nothing more strikingly
shows the social condition than the provisions for locomotion. In the
rainy seasons the roads were all but impassable, justifying the epithet
often applied to them of being in a horrible state. Through such
gullies, half filled with mud, carriages were dragged, often by oxen,
or, when horses were used, it was as much a matter of necessity as in
the city a matter of display to drive half a dozen of them. If the
country was open the track of the road was easily mistaken. It was no
uncommon thing for persons to lose their way, and have to spend the
night out in the air. Between places of considerable importance the
roads were sometimes very little known, and such was the difficulty for
wheeled carriages that a principal mode of transport was by pack-horses,
of which passengers took advantage, stowing themselves away between the
packs. We shall probably not dissent from their complaint that this
method of travelling was hot in summer and cold in winter. The usual
charge for freight was fifteen pence per ton per mile. Toward the close
of the century what were termed "flying coaches" were established; they
could move at the rate of from thirty to fifty miles in a day. Many
persons thought the risk so great that it was a tempting of Providence
to go in them. [Sidenote: The mails; penny-post disliked.] The mail-