ROADS. 3 '9' 



affairs in town, I can pass my evenings here, without 

 breaking in upon the business of the day. There are 

 two different ways to it ; if you go by that of Laurentum, 

 you must turn off at the fourteenth mile-stone ; if by 

 Ostia, at the eleventh. Both of them, are, in some parts, 

 sandy (no M'Adam in those days !), which makes it some- 

 what heavy and tedious if you travel in a carriage, but 

 easy and pleasant to those who ride on horseback.' 



Roads may be called the veins and arteries of a 

 country, through which channels every improvement 

 circulates. All the aid of science has lately been 

 applied to the making of them ; and by the geological 

 maps published, those countries are pointed out from 

 which the best materials are to be derived. Nothing 

 however, beats the Bristol limestone, broken small, as 

 by the direction of Mr. M'Adam. I really consider this 

 gentleman as being, next to the late Doctor Jenner, the 

 greatest contributor to the welfare of mankind that this 

 country ever produced — that is to say in the civil depart- 

 ments of life. The opposition his system of breaking 

 the stones small met with in rural districts afforded a 

 striking instance of the tyranny of custom, and showed 

 what a task it is to combat with prejudice and error. 

 The labouring men persisted in saying that stones 

 broken so small would wear out immediately ; whereas 

 they were at length convinced that the smaller the 

 materials the more durable they were ; and that a 

 large stone in a road was certain to destroy it in two 

 separate ways : — first, it acts as a lever to the road, by 

 one end raising up the face of it when a wheel passes 



