to the desired heights and level. As already observed, the depth of material required 

 will depend upon the intended use. Twelve inches of material will form a road 

 sufficiently strong for all purposes required on a private residence. To secure a 

 solid foundation a layer of unbroken flat stones, averaging six inches in thickness, 

 should be laid with their broadest faces downwards, as close together as practicable, 

 and all interstices well rammed up with smaller pieces. This foundation will form 

 a compact pavement through which the under soil will never penetrate, as is the 

 case where small stones are used, the soil being pressed up between them alternately 

 mixing with the outer covering of the road. This understratum may in fact be 

 considered the actual road, but in order to keep it from derangement it is necessary 

 to form a compact homogeneous surface as a protection, for if the wheel of a wagon 

 or the foot of a heavy quadruped were to press on one extremity of a large stone, the 

 other end would be raised, and the whole disturbed. Hence fii-mness is necessary, 

 and to secure it we must reduce the surface material to a size below that of the 

 pressing point, that no disarrangement may occur from leverage or compound action. 

 To secure such a surface a layer of broken stone should be spread over the foundation, 

 and this in turn covered with gravel or something similar. These broken stones 

 should be procured of a tough as well as a hard nature. Many hard stones are 

 brittle, and by pressure are easily reduced to powder. A thickness of four inches 

 of small angular stones will be sufficient ; these would in time of themselves become 

 solid and compact, but to render the road more immediately agreeable, both with 

 respect to convenience and appearance, a further covering of gravel may be applied 

 to bind and solidify the whole. 



Much depends upon the quality of the gravel ; rounded pebbles are by themselves 

 the worst description of material for road making. Independent of the facilities 

 which their interstices affijrd for the lodgement of water, there is a constant 

 tendency of their rising upwards. When pressed upon any point of their circum- 

 ference they move, and the smaller particles falling in around them they become 

 edged, and in time get to the surface. The best gravel for road making, therefore, 

 is that which contains a proper quantity of clayey loam as a binding property, 

 forming a close, compact, even surface. 



A newly formed road will require occasional attention to prevent ruts until it 

 becomes firm. When ruts are once formed, they define a tract which carriages 

 follow ; and are thus continually widened and increased. They become filled with 

 water during rains, which not being able to escape softens the material and hastens 

 its dcstniction by each succeeding carriage, involving a greater outlay in repairs 

 than would have been required to prevent its occurrence, besides the inconvenience 

 of travelling on a road in such a condition. 



The same general principles are applicable in the formation of walks for foot 

 passengers. The depth of material, however, need not in many soils exceed a few 

 inches. A porous, gravelly, or sandy soil is in itself a good walk if properly shaped. 

 Such walks admit of greater convexity than carriage roads, which is equivalent to a 

 saving of material. A gravelled walk is as apparently a work of art as a build 

 its outline should therefore be accurately defined. It should appear brimfull 



