The XVIIIth century; its institutions, customs, and costumes France, 1700-1789 . guests whom he had driven down in his carriage and six : Gentlemen, here we are in Switzerland, and we are now aboutto cross the devils bridge, which, spanning a torrent and a precipice,will lead us to the marble temple which I have erected in honourof Friendship. The bad state of the roads often rendered travelling very roads had been made and were kept in repair by forced labour,but the work executed by the men pressed into service was nearlyalways scamped. Moreover, no change had been made in the
The XVIIIth century; its institutions, customs, and costumes France, 1700-1789 . guests whom he had driven down in his carriage and six : Gentlemen, here we are in Switzerland, and we are now aboutto cross the devils bridge, which, spanning a torrent and a precipice,will lead us to the marble temple which I have erected in honourof Friendship. The bad state of the roads often rendered travelling very roads had been made and were kept in repair by forced labour,but the work executed by the men pressed into service was nearlyalways scamped. Moreover, no change had been made in the layingof the roads, the causeway of which was always slightly convex, withavenues of trees on each side. But as the causeway was not wide TRAVEL. 44; enough to admit of two vehicles passing each other, one or other ofthem had to pull on one side, and this led to many accidents. Some-times, the two vehicles came into collision, and in other cases theone which was backing out of the way upset as it left the roads were much used by heavy waggons drawn hy long teams. Fig. 282.—Tlie death ; after Dcsportes. of horses, and this, together with heavy thunderstorms, will accountfor the deep ruts bj- which so many travelling carriages were upsetduring dark nights. Louis XVI., who did away with the system offorced labour (1776), decreed that the cost of making and repairs ofthe main roads should be borne by the State, but the owners of theproperty through which these roads ran asserted their feudal rio-ht,and the system of forced labour was retained until the establishmentof the service of ponts d c/iaussccs (bridges and roads). The localroads, as they are now called, were, previous to the Revolution, so badthat they can scarcely be classed as carriage-roads at all. 444 THE EIGHTEEI^TH CEATURY. This was not the chief Inconvenience in the way of travellingthrough France. People naturally dreaded having to sleep at theinns, though they were compelled to do so owing to the dan
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