Some experiments with the smid 



31 



iSecp. The markets were often inaccessible during 

 several months.... The wheeled carriages were, in this 

 district, generally pulled by oxen. When Prince George 

 of Denmark visited the stately mansion of Petworth in 

 wet weather, he was six hours in going nine miles ; and 

 it was necessary that a body of sturdy hinds should be 

 on each side of his coach to prop it up. Of the carriages 

 which conveyed his retinue several were upset and in- 

 jured. A letter from one of the party has been preserved 

 in which the unfortunate courier complains that, during 

 fourteen hours, he never once alighted, except when his 

 coach was overturned or stuck fast in the mud." The 

 Romans knew how to make roads anywhere, and so they 





/7. 



Fig. 17. 



Two positions of sand. A is dry because the water can drain 



away and break out as a spring at c. B is wet because 



the water cannot drain away 



made them run in a straight line between the two places 

 they wished to connect, but the art was lost in later 

 years, and the country roads made in England since 

 their time usually had to follow the sand or the chalk, 

 avoiding the clay as much as possible. These roads 

 we still use. Fig. 18 shows the roads round Wye ; you 

 should in your rambles study your own roads and see 

 what soil they are on. 



There are several other ways in which sand differs 

 from clay. It does not shrink on drying nor does it 



