Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/139

 io s. VIL FEB. 9, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

Ill

long train of pack-animals, is thus recorded by J. K. Lord in ' The Naturalist in Van- couver Island,' &c. (1866) :

" I have eighty-one mules and a bell-horse. To manage mules without a horse carrying a bell round its neck is perfectly impossible. The bell-horse is always ridden ahead, and wherever it goes the mules follow in single file." I. 248.

To this he adds an interesting account of the method adopted in crossing a wide stream, when, if a canoe is obtainable, "the bell-horse, deprived of his bell, is towed by the canoe across the stream ; a packer, standing iii the canoe, keeps ringing the bell violently,"

when, after some hesitation, the mules " dash into -the water and swim towards the clang- ing bell On reaching the opposite side, when the

horse's feet touch the ground, the man again drops astride, and rides it out, ringing the all-potent bell with all his might."

Without a canoe the packer swims beside the animal, taking care to keep up the bell sound (i. 269-70). The team, according to its length, was under the care of one or more mounted men ; but when, as for farm purposes, the animals were few only, the man in charge seated himself on the top of one of the loads. In the latter cases the bell-horse may have been dispensed with.

We have to bear in mind that, with the exception of the main roads between cities and towns, the majority of the public road- ways in England, as late as the commence- ment of the last century, consisted of un- paved, ill-kept, narrow lanes, which could not be traversed by wheeled carriages of any kind. These lanes were frequently identical with the ancient trackways : those of Dartmoor are characterized by Mr. R. Burnard as " narrow gullies dignified by the name of roads " (Trans. Dev. Assoc., xxxvii. 174). Travelling along them on horseback was attended with many dis- comforts, but the pedestrian had to suffer many additional difficulties and dangers. The condition of these lanes is noted by the Rev. J. Marriott in his ' Marriage is like a Devonshire Lane ' :

In the first place, 'tis long, and when you are in it,

It holds you as fast as a cage does a linnet ;

For howe'er rough and dirty the road may be

found. Drive forward you must, there is no turning round.

For though 'tis so long, it is not very wide, For two are the most that together can ride ; And e'en then 'tis a chance but they get in a pother, And jostle and cross and run foul of each other.

Then the banks are so high, to the left hand and

right, That they shut up the beauties around them from

sight.

From time immemorial, and until a recent period as late as 1840 in Shropshire the sole method of transporting goods all over England was by pack-horses or mules, except in the vicinity of carriage by water. (The same method is still practised in many mountainous districts on the Continent.) Numerous entries relating to pack-horses will be found in the Domesday Record. According to Mr. Markland, " the persons of young scholars " were frequently conveyed by pack-animals to the Universities from the north of England (Archceologia, xx. 460). In 1866 Sir J. Bowring remarked (Trans. Dev. Assoc., iii. 95) :

"It is within my recollection that there were many roads leading to important places in this very county (Devon) which no wheel carriage could pass, and where everything was conveyed on the backs of pack-horses, stumbling over the broken stones, and sometimes buried in the deep mud."

The disuse of pack-horses began when carts and waggons could be employed on the roads and unpaved roadways, both forms of conveying goods being frequently utilized by the same carrier, as shown in the following advertisement, transcribed from A. Brice's Exeter paper in 1727 :

"George Gatehill, the Tauntoii Carrier to and from Exeter, who for several years past has practiced that employment with Pack Horses, not only continues such carriage, but now more coni-

modiously and securely to serve hisMasters with

Conveyance of Goods of larger Weight and Bulk, drives Waggons also.''

Long crooks were for the most part employed for holding the goods to be transported. These were secured one on either side of the back of the animal, and are thus fully described by Mr. Elworthy :

"Long crooks consist of two long poles bent

in a half circle of about eighteen inches in diameter, but with one end much longer than the other. A pair of these bent poles are kept about two feet apart and parallel to each other by five or more rungs. A frame so constructed forms one crook, and a pair of these pairs are slung on the pack- saddle pannier-wise. When in position the long ends of the crooks are iipright, and are at least three feet above the horse s back. Being over five feet asunder, a very large quantity of hay, straw, or corn can be loaded on a pack-horse." "West Somerset Word-Book,' 170.

Short crooks, sometimes called " crabs," sufficed for barrels and for small heavy goods.

The widespreading crooks, combined with the narrowness of the passage, will serve to show the danger to which a traveller, whether on foot or on horseback, would be subjected on encountering a gang of pack- horses in a narrow lane, especially at the close of the day ; and hence the importance of a warning of their approach being given