Rochdale is described as a "pretty neate towne, built all of stone." The ride over Blackstone Edge is well described; the author mentions it as "noted all over England," and, after referring to the ascent from the Yorkshire side, says, "Here I entred Lancashire; the mist began to lessen, and as I descended on this side ye fogg more and more went off, and a little raine fell, though at a little distance in our view the sun shone on ye vale, wᶜʰ indeed is of a large extent here, and ye advantage of soe high a hill, wᶜʰ is at least 2 mile up, discovers the grounds beneath as a fruitfull valley full of inclosures and cut hedges and trees. That wᶜʰ adds to the formidableness of Blackstone Edge is that on ye one hand you have a vast precipice almost the whole way one ascends and descends, and in some places ye precipice is on either hand." Of the state of the roads in Lancashire this writer has somewhat to say; her ride from Wigan to Preston, though only twelve miles, took her four hours; and she adds, "I could have gone 20 miles in most countrys" in the same time; but she found one good thing in the county roads, which was, that at cross-roads there were posts with "hands pointing to each road, wᵗʰ ye names of ye great towns on." Daniel Defoe, passing over Blackstone Edge in 1724, complains that the road was "very frightful narrow and deep, with a hollow precipice on the right," and that after he had gone a short distance this hollow got deeper and deeper, and, though they led the horses, they found it "very troublesome and dangerous." Yet this was the direct and only road to Yorkshire from the Rochdale valley. The turnpike system,[224] before the advent of the nineteenth century, had not been adopted in any part of Lancashire, but, with the commencement of the new industries and commercial enterprises of the period, it soon became apparent that the old "pack and prime"[225] ways were no longer adequate to carry on the business which had now to be done. Some of these old roads were little better than footpaths, which the repeated tread of long strings of pack-horses had worn deep into the soil, so that in rainy weather they served at once as roads and water-courses, and these were often crossed by rivers, which at flood-times were both deep and rapid, and a constant source of danger to travellers and their goods. In 1753 all the roads in the county were infested with highway robbers, and to guard against them travellers went in groups. Thus, every Tuesday a gang of horsemen set off from London, and arrived at Liverpool on the Monday following. Goods were carried on stage-waggons, and were usually from ten days to a fortnight in coming to Lancashire from the Metropolis.