368

niSTOllY OF ENGLAND.

CnAP.

III.

to ride to tlie saddle skirts in water. * In the course of an-other journey he narrowly escaped being swept away by an in-undation of the Trent. He was afterwards detained at Stam-ford four days, on account of the state of the roads, and thenventured to proceed only because fourteen members of theHouse of Commons, who were going up in a body to Parlia-ment with guides and numerous attendants, took him intotheir company.** On the roads of Derbyshire travellers werein constant fear for their necks, and were frequently com-pelled to alight and load their beasts.*** The great routethrough Wales to Holyhead was in such astate that, in 1C85, aviceroy, going to Ireland, was live hours in travelling fourteenmiles, from Saint Asaph to Conway. Between Conway andBeaumaris he was forced to walk great part of the way; andhis lady was carried in a litter. His coach was, with great dif-ficulty, and by the help of many hands, brought after himentire. In general, carriages were taken to pieces at Conway,and borne, on the shoulders of stout Welsh peasants, to theMen.ai Straits, f In some parts of Kent and Sussex none butthe strongest horses could, in winter, get through the bog, inwhich, at every step, they sank deep. The markets were ofteninaccessible during several months. It is said that the fruitsof the earth were sometimes sullered to rot in one place, whilein another place, distant only a few miles, the supply fell farshort of the demand. The wheeled carriages were, in thisdistrict, generally pulled by oxen.ff When Prince George ofDenmark visited the stately mansion of Petworth in wetweather, ho was six hours in going nine miles; and it was

* Thoresby’s Diarv, May 11.1095.

•* lb. Dec. 21. lios.

*** Tour in Derbyshire, by J. Browne, son of Sir Thomas Browne,1GG2. C.otlon’s Angler, 1G1G.

+ Correspondence of Henry Earl of Clarendon, Dec. .10. !GS5, Jan. 1.1G86.

+1 Postlethwaitc's Did., Boads. History of Ilawkhurst, in the Bibli-otheca Topographies Brilannica.