The mode of travel of the gentry was riding horses, but most
people traveled by walking. People carried passes for travel that
certified they were of good conduct and not a vagrant or sturdy
rogue. Bands of roving vagabonds terrorized the countryside. After
a land survey completed in 1579 there arose travel books with
maps, itineraries, and mileage between towns in England and Wales.
Also, the Queen sent her official mail by four royal postal routes
along high roads from London to various corners of the nation.
Horses are posted along the way for the mail-deliverer's use.
However, private mail still goes by packman or common carrier. The
nation's inland trade developed a lot. There were many more
wayfaring traders operating from town inns. In 1564, the first
canal was built with locks at Exeter. More locks and canals
facilitated river travel. At London Bridge, water-wheels and pumps
are installed.
New sea navigation techniques improved voyages. Seamen learned to
fix their positions, using an astrolabe or quadrant to take the
altitude of the sun and stars and to reckon by the north star.
They used a nocturnal, read by touch, to help keep time at night
by taking the altitude of the stars. They calculated tides. To
measure distances, they invented the traverse board, which was
bored with holes upon lines, showing the points of the compass; by
means of pegs, the steersman kept an account of the course
steered.
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