Turbary

Turbary, or common of turbary, is the right or liberty of digging turf upon another man's ground. Broum. TURNPIKE; TURNPIKE ROAD. A road whose constructors are authorised to exact tolls. The term is generic, and embraces roads of various materials and construction, such as plank roads, gravel roads, &c., as well as those made in the manner of ordinary high-roads. The chief distinction between a highway and a turnpike is that the first is constructed at public expense, and is free to all; the latter is made at private cost, repaid by tolls. Plank-road companies may be deemed embraced by an act regulating, by name, bridge, turnpike, railroad, and canal companies. A turnpike company is one that owns and receives tolls on a turnpike road. A road is termed a turnpike road, not because of its form, or of the material of which it is composed, but because of the form and character of the gates placed on the road to obstruct the passage of travellers, until they have paid the tolls, always collected on such roads. The word turnpike does not niean road, but it means gates, such as are used to throw across the road to obstruct travellers' carriages, and the like, until the tolls are collected. The charters usually granted to what are commonly termed turnpike companies and those granted to plank-road companies, with regard to their duties, powers, and privileges, are substantially the same. Their right to erect gates and receive tolls is precisely the same, as is also the mode of using them. The only perceptible difference between the whether the surfface he earth or stojie, or gravel or wood, if they are constructed hy 4 private company under public authority, dedicated to public travel, with gates erected thereon, and tolls collected as a condition of such travel, such companies are turnyike companies, whether the surface of the road be earth, gravel, stone, or wood.

State v. Haight, 30 N. J. L. 443; 32 Id. 4-19.

A road on which toll-gates are erected and tolls taken is a turnpike road.

Northam Bridge & Boads v. London & Southampton Railway Co., 6 Mee. ^ W. 428; 1 Railw. C. 653; !^egina v. East & West Injjia Docks, &c. Eailway Co., 22 Eng. L. ^ Eg. 113; 22 Law J. n. s. Q. B. 3^6; 17 Jur. 1181; 6EI.S- B. 466.

A turnpike road is a public highway, established by public authority for public use, and is to be regarded as a public easement, and not as private property. The only dif Eerence between this and a common highway is, tljat instead of being made at the public expense in the first instance, it is authorized and laid out by public authority, and made at the expense of individuals in the first instance; and the cost of construction and maintenance is reimbursed by a toll, levied by public authority for the purpose.

Commonwealth V. Wilkinson, 16 Pick. 175.

That turnpike acts are not within the general operation of the English highway law, see Wharton.