Welsh Journals

Figure 1. An Artist travelling in Wales. H. Merke after T. Rowlandson, 1799. (National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff) previous generations had devoted to the remains of the Greek and Roman civilisations. The last four decades of the eighteenth century also saw a quickening of the pace of economic and, in particular, industrial development in South Wales, and this led to improvements in communications which made travel easier and more comfortable for local people and visitors alike. Many of these changes came gradually: the main east-west route through Glamorgan from Cardiff to Swansea was generally well-maintained, but many of the side-roads remained unsuitable for wheeled traffic. A lack of road maps,3 inadequate signposting and the reluctance or inability of local people to guide travellers caused difficulties for many visitors to the county in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The gentlemen and industrialists of Glamorgan took the lead in promoting the development of the road system. In 1764 the county's first Turnpike Act was passed, and five trusts were set up, to improve the existing roads and build new ones, and to levy tolls to pay for their work. In theory the Act covered the whole