A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



beginning at Highgate Hill to leade directly 

 to Whetstone." The old road to Highgate 

 was doubtless but a communication along the 

 ridge to Hampstead, with little more than local 

 value. The augmentation of the toll revenue 

 at Highgate must have benefited greatly by 

 the change. But the time came at last, 

 when 'way-faring men and carriers' were 

 not the only classes to be served by the new 

 highway. Coaches and carriages found it an 

 arduous affair to cross the hill, and at length, 

 after much protest and waiting for redress, 

 it was determined to improve the road by 

 diverting it to the right upon a lower level. 

 This was in 1812. At first a tunnel was 

 projected, about 300 yds. in length. After 

 about half of it was constructed, the whole 

 fell in early one morning, luckily before the 

 workmen were on duty. It was then deter- 

 mined to revise the plan. Operations were 

 resumed with a deep open cutting, an arch- 

 way to be thrown over at the point where 

 the road is traversed by the Hornsey Lane. 

 The road was completed, and opened for 

 traffic on 21 August 1813, and proved very 

 welcome as an easier route to the north. 3 

 The acclivity was still considerable, and in 

 actual distance only 100 yds. or so were 

 saved, but it has well justified the enterprise 

 of the promoters. The archway was of stone 

 with enormous brick supports and a stone 

 balustrade, and had the merit of being rather 

 ornamental when approached from either 

 side. It is now superseded by an iron bridge, 

 on bolder lines, more suitable to the needs of 

 a busier generation. 



The decrease of traffic on the Middlesex 

 roads after 1840 was never so marked as on 

 some of the great trade routes in more rural 

 counties; and any falling-off has been regained 

 within the last decade owing to the develop- 

 ment of electric tramways, and the heavy 

 motor goods-services of various companies. 

 Both of these systems, in fact, are now vigor- 

 ous competitors with the suburban railway 

 lines. Owing, however, to the position of 

 London at its heart, few counties are so 

 well supplied as Middlesex with railroad 

 facilities, since the national trunk lines radiate 

 from the capital as a centre ; the latest to 

 acquire a terminus within the metropolitan 

 area being the Great Central Railway at 

 Marylebone. The construction of the elec- 

 tric tubes and their gradual extension to the 

 suburbs has also, within the last few years, 

 introduced a further element of competition 

 as regards passenger traffic. The tramways, 



1 John Norden, Speculum Brit. (1723), 15. 

 ' E. W. Brayley, lond. and MidJ. x (4), 223. 



the omnibus companies, and the older rail- 

 ways have all been affected, though in differ- 

 ent degrees. The loss of suburban traffic has 

 been the main factor in suggesting the pro- 

 ject for amalgamating the three great lines 

 of the Great Northern, Great Eastern, and 

 Great Central which is under consideration. 



The county of Middlesex has the advantage 

 of extensive means of water-carriage. Before 

 the railways came, this advantage was more 

 apparent than it is now when the value of 

 time, in speedy dispatch and removal, is 

 more fully appreciated. To begin with, the 

 entire eastern and southern borders of the 

 county are provided with navigable rivers, in 

 the Thames and the Lea, while the Grand 

 Junction Canal and its offshoots supply the 

 needs of the county from Uxbridge in the 

 west to several parts of the metropolis. The 

 first canalization of the River Lea was under- 

 taken about the year 1770, at a period when 

 such measures were in their infancy, or were 

 being undertaken with timidity. During the 

 remaining years of the i8th century more 

 ambitious efforts were made. A great many 

 useful canals were formed throughout the 

 kingdom, some of which have become disused 

 through the influence of railway enterprise. 

 Among those which remain in operation, and 

 are to some extent prosperous, the Lea and 

 Stort Navigation and the Grand Junction 

 Canal may be included. They are almost a 

 necessity to the localities they serve, and their 

 proprietors may be congratulated on their divi- 

 dends. 



The Grand Junction Canal, with its 

 direct and uninterrupted communications with 

 Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Lancashire, 

 enters the county at Uxbridge on the western 

 outskirts of the town. Its course is through 

 the levels of Cowley, West Drayton, and 

 Southall, at a nearly uniform elevation above 

 the ordnance datum of looft. In the last- 

 named parish a short series of locks brings it 

 to the level of the River Brent, which is from 

 this point canalized until it reaches the 

 Thames at Brentford. It is significant of the 

 importance of this canal to the traffic for 

 which it was designed that a short branch of 

 the Great Western Railway runs nearly 

 parallel, from Southall to Brentford, without 

 seriously diminishing the prosperity of the 

 canal. 



The success of the Grand Junction Canal 

 naturally led to extensions of the principle. It 

 was determined to make a supplementary 

 cutting in order to bring navigation to the 

 West End of London, and an Act of Parlia- 

 ment was obtained for extending the canal 

 to Paddington. At the end of the i8th 



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