432 OUR COMMON ROADS—MURPHY. 
body of the road. This appears to have been, asa rule, composed 
of four layers, generally of local materials, though sometimes, 
they were brought from considerable distances. The lowest layer 
consisted of two or three courses of flat stones, or, when these 
were not obtainable, of other stones, generally laid in mortar ; the 
second layer was composed of rubble masonry of smaller stones 
or a coarse concrete ; the third of a finer concrete, on which was 
laid a pavement of polygonal blocks of hard stone, jointed with 
the greatest nicety. The four layers are found to be three feet 
or more in thickness, but the two lowest were dispensed with on 
rock. The paved part of a great road appears to have been 
almost 16 feet wide, and on either side, and separated from it by 
raised causeways, were unpaved sideways, each of half the width 
of the paved road. Where, as on many roads, the surface was 
not paved, it was made of hard concrete, or pebbles or flint set 
in mortar. Sometimes clay and marl were used instead of mortar, 
and it would seem that where inferior materials were used, the 
road was made higher above the ground and rounder in 
cross-section. ” 
With the disruption of the Roman empire came a period at 
which road-making and maintenance became neglected, and seems 
to have fallen into general disuse, until about the twelfth or 
thirteenth century. About the middle of the 12th century the 
principal streets of large towns were protected by stone. The 
streets were prepared with a gravel or concrete bed, and on this 
a pavement was laid, consisting of deep rectangular blocks of such 
rock as granite, trap, or quartzites, of 10 to 12 inches in depth, 
and of irregular widths, and of from 1 to 2 feet in length, bedded 
and jointed in strong mortar. In many continental cities this 
method of street paving is yet adhered to. 
The bad state of the roads in England in 1685 is given by 
Macaulay’s History, pp. 339, 340, vol. 1: “It was by the high- 
ways that both travellers and goods generally passed from place 
to place, and these highways appear to have been far worse than 
might have been expected from the degree of wealth and civili- 
zation which the nation had even then attained. On the lines 
of best communication the ruts were deep, the descents precipi- 
