In the English countryside and beyond from the 1600s to the 1800s, when travel was hazardous due to lack of good roadways, no one rode alone for fear of being robbed by a highwayman. Highwaymen scoured the countryside, waylaying carriages, on their trusty means of transport, the horse. These individuals were known to be socially superior to those who robbed on foot, called Footpads. Highwaymen, to some, were romantically know as Gentlemen of the Road, or Knights of the Road.