n round, they placed in them fagots
twelve or fourteen feet long, which were renewed as they were worn away
by the traffic" (Gunning's "Reminiscences of Cambridge," 1798).

Some of the ruts were described as being four feet deep. In Young's
_Tours through England_ (1768) the Essex roads are spoken of as having
ruts of inconceivable depth, and the roads so overgrown with trees as
to be impervious to the sun. Some of the turnpikes were spoken of as
being rocky lanes, with stones "as big as a horse, and abominable
holes!" He adds that "it is a prostitution of language to call them
turnpikes--ponds of liquid dirt and a scattering of loose flints, with
the addition of cutting vile grips across the road under the pretence
of letting water off, but without the effect, altogether render these
turnpike roads as infamous a turnpike as ever were made!"

If the early coaches on the main roads were in such a sorry plight,
what was to be expected of traffic on the parish roads? In some
villages in this district lying two or three miles off the Great North
Road, it was not unusual for carts laden with corn for Royston market
to start over night to the high road so as to be ready for a fair start
in the morning, in which case one man would ride on the "for'oss" (fore
horse) carrying a lantern to light the way; and a sorry struggle it
was! Years later when a carriage was kept here and there, it was not
uncommon for a dinner party to get stuck in similar difficulties, and
to have to call up the horses from a neighbouring farm to pull them
through!

The difficulties for the older coaches and wagons were peculiarly
trying in this district on account of the hills and hollows, but one of
the most dreadful pieces of road at that time and for long afterwards,
was {12} that between Chipping and Buntingford, the foundations of
which were often little else but fagots thrown into a quagmire!

But besides bad vehicles and worse roads, there was a weird and a
horrid fascination about coaching in the eighteenth century, arising
from the vision of armed and well-mounted highwaymen, or of a
malefactor, after execution, hanging in chains on the gibbet by the
highway near the scene of his exploits!

Let us take one well authenticated case--the best authenticated perhaps
now known in England--in which a member of a respectable family in
Royston turned highwayman--an amateur highwayman one would fain hope
and believe--and paid the full penalty of