INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 537 
but at the very date of his travels another observer was able AD, 16s 
to congratulate his countrymen on the immense improve- 
ment that had taken place in the preceding half century. 
Henry Homer regarded the state of the roads and difficulties In the time 
of internal communication as one of the chief reasons for the of Ju een 
backward state of the country in the time of Queen Anne. 
“The Trade of the Kingdom languished under these Im- 
pediments. Few People cared to encounter the Difficulties, 
which attended the Conveyance of Goods from the Places 
where they were manufactured, to the Markets, where they 
were to be disposed of And those, who undertook this 
Business, were only enabled to carry it on in the Wintry- 
Season on Horseback, or, if in Carriages, by winding 
Deviations from the regular Tracks, which the open country 
afforded them an Opportunity of making. Thus the very the state of 
same Cause, which was injurious to Trade, laid waste also eoals 
a considerable Part of our Lands. The natural Produce of trad 
the Country was with Difficulty circulated to supply the 
Necessities of those Counties and trading Towns, which 
wanted, and to dispose of the superfluity of others which 
abounded. Except in a few Summer-Months, it was an 
almost impracticable Attempt to carry very considerable 
Quantities of it to remote Places. Hence the Consumption 
of the Growth of Grain as well as of the inexhaustible 
Stores of Fuel, which Nature has lavished upon particular 
Parts of our Island, was limited to the Neighbourhood of 
those Places which produced them; and made them, com- 
paratively speaking, of little value to what they would have 
seen, had the Participation of them been more enlarged. 
“To the Operation of the same Cause must also be 0 
attributed, in great Measure, the slow Progress which was 
‘ormerly made in the Improvement of Agriculture. Dis- 
couraged by the Expence of procuring Manure, and the 
incertain Returns, which arose from such confined Markets, 
she Farmer wanted both Spirit and Ability to exert himself 
mm the Cultivation of his Lands. On this Account Under- 
sakings in Husbandry were then generally small. calculated 
ve tacked to each to draw them out one by one.” Southern Tour, p. 88. A mass 
of evidence as to the state of the roads in the eighteenth century will be found in 
‘N.C. Sydney, England in the Eighteenth Century. 11. 1—43.