Book II. 



PAVED ROADS 



599 



555 



and it must be evident that road materials of the best quality may be procured at less cost 

 than paving stone. The very bad quality of the gravel round London, combined vv^ith 

 want of skill and exertion, either to obviate its defects, or to procure a better material, 

 has induced several of the small trusts, leading from that city, to have recourse to the plan 

 of paving their roads, as far as their means vi'ill admit. Instead of applying their ample 

 funds to obtain good materials for the roads, they have imported stone from Scotland, 

 and have paved their roads, at an expense ten times greater than that of the excellent 

 roads lately made on some of the adjoining trusts. Very few of these pavements have 

 been so laid as to keep in good order for any length of time, so that a very heavy expense 

 has ])een incurred without any beneficial result; and it is to be lamented that this wasteful 

 and ineffectual mode is upon the increase in the neighbourhooc^ of London. 



3705. The practice of 2^aving roads has also been adopted in places where the same 

 motive cannot be adduced : in Lancashire, almost all the roads are paved at an enormous 

 cost, and are, in consequence, proverbially bad. At Edinburgh, where they have the 

 best and cheapest materials in the kingdom, the want of science to construct good roads 

 has led the trustees to adopt the expedient of paving to a considerable extent ; and at an 

 expense hardly credible, when compared with what would have been the cost of roads on 

 the best principles. 



3706. The advantages of good roads, when compared with pavements, are universally ac- 

 knowledged ; the extension of pavement is therefore to be deprecated as an actual evil, 

 besides the greatness of the expense. Pavements are particularly inconvenient and dan- 

 gerous on steep ascents, such as the ascent to bridges, &c. A veiy striking example of 

 this may be observed on the London end of Blackfriars bridge, where heavy loads are 

 drawn up with great difficulty, and where more horses fall and receive injury than in any 

 other place in the kingdom. The pavement in such places should be lifted, and con- 

 verted into a good road, which may be done with the same stone at an expense not 

 exceeding \0d. per square yard. This road would be more lasting than the pavement, 

 and, when out of order, may be repaired at less than one tenth of the expense which 

 relaying the pavement would require. This measure has been adopted with great 

 success, and considerable saving of expense, in the suburbs of Bristol, where the 

 pavements were taken up, and converted into good roads, about three years ago. 

 The same thing has lately been successfully adopted on Westminster and Blackfriars 

 bridges. 



8707. In preparing for laying down pavements, the first thing to be attended to, 

 Edgeworth observes, is the foundation. This mujt be made of strong and uniform 

 materials, well rammed together, and accurately formed to correspond with the figure of 

 the superincumbent pavement. This has no where been more effectually accomplished, 

 than in some late pavement in Dublin. Major Taylor, who is at the head of the Paving 

 Board, before he began to pave a street, first made it a good gravel-road, and left it to be 

 beaten down by carriages for several months ; it then became a fit foundation for a good 

 pavement. The Romans, in preparing for pavement, laid a substratum of masonry, in 

 some cases two or more feet thick, and never less than a foot or eighteen inches. This 

 mode is adopted in one or two cases near St. Petersburgh, and might be advantageously 

 used in this country, were not the expense an objection. Planking, broad stones, iron 

 plates, slates, tiles, and brickwork, have also been proposed in this country ; but a con- 

 solidated stratum of broken stone often inches in thickness is perhaps the sinaplest and 

 best preparation, especially for the sides of roads. A substratum of sand is sure to 

 be deranged after the first rains. 



3708. The kinds of stone used in paving are chiefly granite, whinstone or trap, 



Qq 4 



