It ran almost directly north and south from Coxford
Abbey to Castle Acre Priory. But do not suppose that a road in those
days meant what it does now. To begin with, people in the country
never drove about in carriages. In such a place as Rougham, men and
women might live all their lives without ever seeing a travelling
carriage, whether on four wheels or two. [Footnote: It is, however,
not improbable that when the Queen came into Norfolk, the eyes of the
awe-struck rustics may have been dazzled by even such an astonishing
equipage as is figured in Mr. Parker's "Hist. Domestic Architecture,"
vol. ii. p. 141.] The road was quite unfit for driving on. There were
no highway rates. Now and then a roadway got so absolutely
impassable, or a bridge over a stream became so dangerous, that
people grumbled; and then an order came down from the king to the
high sheriff of the county, bidding him see to his road, and the
sheriff thereupon taxed the dwellers in the hundred and forced them
to put things straight. The village of Rougham in those days was in
its general plan not very unlike the present village--that is to say,
the church standing where it does, next to the churchyard was the
parsonage with a croft attached; and next to that a row of houses
inhabited by the principal people of the place, whose names I could
give you, and the order of their dwellings, if it were worth while.
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