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The great main roads of Engiaud have each their 

 esjjecial and immistakeable character, not only in the 

 nature of the scenery through which they run, but 

 also in their story and in the memories which cling 

 about them. The history of the Brighton Road is an 

 ejDitome of all that was dashing and dare-devil in the 

 times of the Regency and the reign of George the 

 Fourth ; the Portsmouth Road is sea-salty and blood- 

 boltered with horrid tales of smuggling days, almost 

 to the exclusion of every other imaginable charac- 

 teristic of road history ; and the story of the Dover 

 Road is a very microcosm of the nation's history. 

 Nothing strongly characteristic of England, English- 

 men, and English customs but what you shall find a 

 hint of it on the Dover Road. As for the Holyhead 

 Road, it traverses the Midland territory of the fox- 

 hunting and port-drinking squires, and reeks of toasts 

 and conjurations of "no heel-taps ; " the great North 

 Road is an agricultural route pre-eminently ; the 



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