346 Gardeji Architecture, 



as a road is manifestly an artificial work, why should it not be as perfect as 

 skill can make it ? The first object of a road is to carry wheeled vehicles ; 

 and any thing in reason which facilitates this object would seem to be 

 allowable. 



The difficulty of making a satisfactory cutting is greatest in compara- 

 tively level ground which happens to be repeatedly crossed by hillocks, re- 

 calling in miniature to the traveller the rolling prairie of the West. 



Fig. 2 1 is, of course, an exaggeration ; but it will serve to illustrate the 

 bad effects of the concealment of any low portion of the road by any high 



^^A., if 



Fig. 21. 



portion without a bend in the road. The spectator at a sees the carriage 

 C in a proper position ; but when c retires down the slope, and is partially 

 lost at B, the effect will be rather grotesque, and will not be improved by 

 the gradual emerging of c towards the crest of hill. 



Where there are means of laying out the road on curves, the inequalities 

 of the ground can be got over with comparative ease, and a cutting may 

 also be much bolder. 



As to the width of roads, every thing depends on the size of the place : 

 but, as no entrance-road need be wider than enough to let two carriages 

 pass, fourteen feet is sufficient for the largest place ; and, as the width of 

 the road pre-eminently gives scale, it should never be made in a small 

 place more than nine, or at most ten feet, — enough for one carriage to drive 

 handsomely. It is thus kept in order by the traffic, and the weeds kept 

 down ; which will not be the case where the road is double the width of the 

 travel. If two carriages meet, it is easy enough to take the grass with one 

 wheel for a few yards ; and, even if the turf should be injured, it is cheaper 

 to repair it now and then than to keep down the weeds in a fourteen-feet 

 road permanently. The refuse lime from gas-works is excellent for killing 

 w^eeds ; but it must be used with care, as it will kill any thing it comes near, 

 and it spreads its influence laterally farther than is generally supposed. 



