Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 2.djvu/114

112 On the accession of James II. the revenue of the post-office was estimated at 65,000l. per annum. As connected with this matter it may be here mentioned that the first toll-gates or turnpikes erected in England are supposed to have been established in 1663, by the act 15 Car. II. c. 1, entitled "An Act for Repairing the Highways within the Counties of Hertford, Cambridge, and Huntingdon." They were ordered to be erected at Wadesmill in Hertfordshire, at Caxton in Cambridgeshire, and at Stilton in Huntingdonshire. The preamble of the act recites that "the ancient highway and post-road leading from London to York, and so into Scotland, and likewise from London into Lincolnshire, lieth for many miles in the counties of Hertford, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, in many of which places the road, by reason of the great and many loads which are weekly drawn in waggons through the said places, as well by reason of the great trade of barley and malt that cometh to Ware, and so is conveyed by water to the city of London, as other carriages, both from the north parts, as also from the city of Norwich, St. Edmondsbury, and the town of Cambridge to London, is very ruinous, and become almost impassable, insomuch that it is become very dangerous to all his majesty's liege people that pass that way."

The growth of London during the present period, notwithstanding the ravages of the great plague and fire, still proceeded at an accelerating rate. We shall briefly note down in their chronological order a few of the facts which more distinctly indicate this continued extension of the English metropolis. An act passed in 1662 (the 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 2), for repairing the highways in London and Westminster, supplies us with various particulars as to its state at that time. The preamble of the act recites that "the common highways leading unto and from the cities of London and Westminster and the suburbs thereof, and other places within the present weekly bills of mortality, by reason of the multitude of houses lately built, and through the stopping and filling up the ditches and sewers, and neglect of timely