106 
unfavourable for breaking up the street 
yavement, and laying the new gravel ; 
owing to the vast quantity of rain. But 
wherever this improved system of road- 
making has experienced a fair trial, as 
in Regent-street, St. James’s-square, 
Westminster-bridge, &c., its advantages 
will, I presume, be acknowledged by 
every unprejudiced person. 
_ Perhaps no street in the metropolis 
would be more improved by this mode 
of paving, than the carriage-road of 
Holborn-hill. The number of accidents 
which continually occur to valuable 
horses, from the. slippery state of the 
pavement of this great thoroughfare, is 
quite distressing. Now, it is quite evi- 
dent, that, nearly all these accidents 
might be prevented, by taking up the 
present slippery pavement, and making 
the ascent of the hill more gradual, and 
then laying down broken granite, ¢ /a 
Macadam,—Y our’s, &c. 
: — 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
| Sir: 
HE letter inserted in your last 
number from Mr, Castleden, of 
Woburn, calls for some reply on my 
part; but before I come to that, I think 
it will be as well to state, that my letter, 
inserted in your Magazine published on 
the 1st of December last, and appearing 
to remark on one by S.W., that had 
been inserted in your number for No- 
vember, was in fact written upwards of 
a year ago, and the letter which caused 
it, formed a part of the Monthly Maga- 
zine, published November 1, 1823.— 
This, of course, your readers could not 
know; and as a change (or more than 
one) has taken place in the Editorship, 
possibly you did not know it yourself. 
Thad, indeed, almost forgotten my letter 
on the Macadamizing system; and I 
only recur to the fact of its being written 
so long back, to shew that it might be 
very likely I should have one opinion of 
Macadamization in November 1823, and 
a very different one in November 1824. 
I say, it might be ; for at the first period 
the system was little more than talked 
of in London, and had been adopted 
but-in very few instances indeed. My 
letter was, therefore, entirely anticipa- 
tory; but it does not require any super- 
natural gift, now, to see that the plan 
will not do well for the streets of Lon- 
don, generally. Still it is something 
curicus, that my year-old letter not 
only passed muster in the respectable 
pages of the Monthly Magazine, but 
was also copied into some of the Mor- 
Objections to Macadamizing. 
(Mar.1, 
ning papers from thence, as a letter 
written during the month of December 
last; so nearly did my presumptions 
agree with the then state of the Mac- 
adamized streets of the metropolis, 
So much for the tine when my letter 
was written. And now, with regard to 
Mr. Castleden’s opinion as to the feel- 
ings with which I remarked on Mr. 
Macadam, when I said, “ That ne jinds 
it answer well, there can be no doubt.” 
I still think the same as to the country 
roads which he has made or mended; 
but as to some of his contracts for town 
streets, I fear he will eventually be a 
loser; for he will find them swallow up 
more granite than he expected. It isa 
trite remark to say, “ Save me from my 
friends ;”.and I think Mr. Macadam ~ 
may say this of Mr. Castleden: for, as 
he has pressed the question, I will ask 
any thinking man, whether the former 
has or has not found this thing enswer 
well, when he knows that he had some 
thousands voted to him by parliament, 
to repay him what he had expended in 
posting over England, &c., for the sole 
purpose of looking to, and mending, our 
ways. If he did spend so much in 
posting, and I really cannot say he did 
not, he is certainly the most Quixotic 
north-country gentleman that ever tra- 
velled so far south,—and the luckiest, 
to have got it so repaid to him, Still I 
beg to assure Mr. Castleden, and all 
whom it may concern, that it is neither 
“ jealousy” nor “envy,” towards Mr. 
Macadam, that ever led me to make one 
remark, either on him or his plan. So 
far from it, that I say, in my former 
letter, it is excellent. in the country ; 
and I even admit, that in some parts of 
the metropolis it may do very well. 
It may not be improper here to state, 
that I am a. commissioner of pavements, 
in a large and important parish of West- 
minster, where a considerable part of 
the inhabitants are not overburthened 
with riches, and who think themselves 
sufficiently loaded with rates. and taxes ; 
and I certainly did feel, when the first 
great “hue and cry” was raised some 
time back, about the wonderful Mac- 
adam and his plans, that I, as well as 
every other man placed. in my situation, 
as guardians of the funds of our neigh- 
bours, raised for a particular purpose, 
ought not to yield to the first impulse 
of clamour in favour of a scheme that 
was sure to be very expensive in its 
outset, and which I then thought, and 
do still think, likely to be very uncertain 
in its result, Yet there were not want- 
ing 
