ABSTRACT
In the course of the eighteenth century, as the standard of living rose among the merchant classes, there came a growing demand not only for various commodities but also for improved travelling facilities. The existing means of transport were most unsatisfactory in relation to the needs of business as well as in relation to the pleasures of travel. Although wheeled traffic enormously increased in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, travelling on horse-back, and pack-horse carriage, increased even more rapidly. The most noted personality connected with the new system of English roads was John Metcalf, of Knaresborough. John Smeaton, of whom more will be said presently, had travelled in Holland and Belgium, studying canal works with the intention of undertaking operations of a similar character in England. The important commission to build the third lighthouse on the Eddystone gave him his first opportunity.
