Book II. 



KINDS OF ROADS. 



569 



2£1 



Jt>- 



uninterrupted possession of the metalled road, and the others of the earth road. In 

 many cases, farm roads of this description are only metalled in the horse tracks 



(Jig. 535. a) and wheel ruts 

 (b c), which, on dry firm- 

 bottomed land, and with care- 

 ful preservation, is found to 

 answer very well. 



3535. Open farm roads, 



Beatson observes, should be, 



as much as possible, placed 



on the headlands of the fields ; that is, the portion of land adjacent to the hedge, on which 



the plough is turned ; and every opportunity should be taken of placing gates, so that either 



536 side of a hedge may be used as a road ( fig. 536. ), to 



avoid driving over a field in tillage. This may be 



.easily effected by a few gates being placed in the line 



~ of the headland or nearly so, and not too near each 



-hedge or to each other, so that a waggon may easily 



'_ drive through them on the right or left, as the crops 



-may require; a few hurdles (a) may guard each 



. field in grain alternately, and will furnish a useful 



^fold or enclosure to detain sheep, colts, &c. 



3536. Horse roads are paths for the transit of 

 ; single horses with a rider, or a back load : they are 



commonly of earth, and from six to ten feet wide : 

 the statute width is eight feet. 



3537. Footpaths are tracks for pedestrians ; some- 

 times metalled to the width of three or four feet ; 

 but often of the natural surface. 



3538. Paved roads are of three kinds : those with 

 small stones, or causeways, which are most common ; 

 those with large blocks of stone, or what is called 

 ashlar pavement ; and those with sections of timber 



trees. The first, though almost peculiar to towns, yet form the whole of the metalled 

 road in some cases of country roads ; and in others a space of ten or twelve feet in the 

 middle, or at each side, is causewayed for the use of the heavier carriages. Broad stones 

 are sometimes used for covering part of a road, destined for the greatest part of the traf- 

 fic, or for forming wheel tracks. In the latter case they are always squared or regularly 

 jointed, but in the former the most irregular forms may be used. Timber causewaying is 

 only used in entrance courts to town mansions, for the sake of avoiding the noise made 

 by the wheels of carriages and horses' feet on stone ; or on suspension bridges, for the 

 sake of lightness. For these purposes timber paving is excellent, and lasts for a very 

 long time. On the Continent, fir timber is used for this sort of paving ; but oak or 

 larch would, no doubt, last longer. 



3539. Street roads with stone tracks (Jig. 537.) have been proposed by Mr. Stevenson, 

 a distinguished engineer. These tracks may either be laid in connection with common 



537 



'^O^r 





or rubble causeway (a), or with common road metal (6). Mr. Stevenson proposes to 

 lay these stone tracks upon a firm foundation, if not throughout the whole extent to 



