Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Transport, Railways, Progress, Conservatism, National Efficiency

    Records that the 'turnpike-keepers['] [...] sovereignty of the roads, within fifty miles of London, came to an end, after a reign of five centuries, on the first day of the month of July of this present year, 1864' (54). Their function has now been 'superseded by the rail, without which progress would have been stayed, and we should have been far behind the world'. The 'deposed scarlet officials' may murmur 'reproachfully "They are making a gridiron of old England!". This "gridiron", however, has so increased the traffic in and about London, as to render the obstacles offered by venerable turnpikes intolerable nuisances'. (64)