Book II. MILESTONES, GUIDE-POSTS, AND TOLL-GATES. 



603 





place would afford 

 matter of reflec- 

 tion to all. " It 

 has been sug- 

 gested to us that 

 milestones might 

 be made larger, 

 in the form of an 

 obelisk or sarco- 

 phagus, on the 

 model of an an- 

 cient classical or 

 other building, or 

 in other forms ; 

 and that there 

 might be in- 

 scribed on them 

 the names and 

 dates of events 

 which took place, 

 or of great men 

 who lived, in the 

 neighbourhood ; 

 and that, in ad- 

 dition to these, 

 there might be 

 inscribed on each 

 milestone, or 



structure serving 

 the same end, 

 maxims of con- 

 duct, or funda- 

 mental principles of science. Thus, on some roads, 

 the milestones might exhibit sculptured reliefs, re- 

 presenting a historical series, either of events in the 

 history of that part of the country, in the life of 

 some eminent character who had lived there, in the 

 progress of discovery in some art or science of tm 

 human mind generally, or in general history. If 

 all the proprietors on a line of road were agreed, a 

 group of exotic trees and shrubs might be planted 

 as a back ground to a small area, which might con- 

 tain the milestone ; and by limiting every group to 

 one genus of timber tree, and one or two fruit trees, 

 considerable variety would be produced, and the botanical interest of the road kept up 

 for many miles. Small burial-grounds round milestones would, we think, be unobjec- 

 tionable ; and, indeed, we do not think they could be better placed : and tombstones 

 there, or any where along the road-side, would attain their end more effectually than 

 in churchyards, and, at any rate, would be what is called classical ; which is an excel- 

 lence to be aimed at, and which is beneficial in a certain stage of progress, but too often, 

 in architecture and in sculpture for example, an impediment to improvement, by being 

 considered the highest degree of excellence. Some one has proposed to build cottages 

 as milestones, and to that plan and to various others we have no objection, to a certain 

 extent ; the danger being the production of sameness, by adopting the same plan every 

 where." (Gard. Mag. vol. v. p. 117.) 



3724. Guide-posts. Wherever one road branches from another there ought to be a 

 guide-post ; and it is not a little remarkable that in this improving age, when every 

 street and lane in towns is so carefully named, that so little has been done in the streets 

 and lanes of the country. The posts which bear the names ought, where the expense 

 is not an insuperable object, to be of iron, on account of its durability. Swaine proposes 

 to have the posts hollow cylinders of cast iron, and the letters to be also of iron, with 

 the space between them open, " so that the light may be seen through them ; by which 

 means the characters of this hand-post will be legible at night, by viewing them against 

 the sky, unless it should be exceedingly dark. The direction of the road is denoted by 

 the manner of disposing the letters : thus, in a guide-post between London and Windsor 

 (fig. 561. a), the letters of the word London are reversed, to denote that the direction of 

 London is to the left hand ; the word Windsor in the line beneath is not reversed, 



