On 28/10/2015 21:08, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: > In message <n0namg$j32$2@dont-email.me>, Graeme Wall > <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> writes: >> On 26/10/2015 22:41, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: > [poor people travelling long distances] >>> So how did they feed themselves - let alone any animals - on a long >>> journey? >> >> Assuming the animals aren't cats and dogs they'd forage for themselves, > > (I was thinking of horse, ox, or whatever they might be using to help > them travel, rather than chattel animals such as livestock. Basically, > analogous to fuel for a car today.) Both horses and oxen eat grass, not usually in short supply. If you can afford to own either you can probably afford the costs of feeding them at the various hostelries en route. > >> as would their owners. Various religious establishments, and some >> secular ones, had a tradition of the travellers' dole whereby genuine >> travellers would get free food and water. The Hospice at St Cross, > > Were there enough of these establishments that a practically penniless > person could actually make a long journey? Before the dissolution there were many religious houses dotted all round the countryside. > >> south of Winchester, still operates the system but you have to be on >> foot to qualify. >> >> Talking of animals, another way of lower classes meeting over great >> distances was the cattle/sheep droves taking animals to a big city. > > I'm thinking of greater distances than that: I assume the large markets > some places were known for would have a limited "catchment radius". Some droves were very long, from Scotland to Yorkshire for example. >> >>> A journey from, say, Norfolk to Northumberland would take >>> months at the above rate. (I have such in mine, a sudden widow with >>> about 9 children, but that was somewhere in 1882-1891, so probably >>> easier by then.) >> >> Got proper roads and railways by then so a lot easier. >> > Yes, I thought that was probably a red herring. -- Graeme Wall This account not read, substitute trains for rail.