442 TELFORD'S ROADS. PART VIII. 



were still worse. The line of way was covered with 

 banks of dirt ; in winter it was a puddle of from four to 

 six inches deep quite as Lad as it had been in Arthur 

 Young's time ; and when horses passed along the road, 

 they came out of it a mass of mud and dirt. 1 There were 

 also several steep and dangerous hills to be crossed. 

 The loss of horses by fatigue in travelling by that 

 route was represented at the time to be very great. 

 Even the roads in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 metropolis were little better, those under the High gate 

 and Hampstead trust being pronounced in a wretched 

 state. They were badly formed, on a clay bottom, and 

 being undrained, were almost always wet and sloppy. 

 The gravel was usually tumbled on and spread unbroken, 

 so that the materials, instead of becoming consolidated, 

 were only rolled about by the wheels of the carriages 

 passing over them. Mr. Telford applied the same 

 methods in the reconstruction of these roads that he had 

 already adopted in Scotland and Wales, and the same 

 improvement w^as shortly experienced in the more easy 

 passage of vehicles of all sorts and the great acceleration 

 of the mail service. 



In addition to the reconstruction of these roads, that 

 along the coast from Bangor, by Conway, Abergele, 

 St. Asaph, and Holywell, to Chester, was greatly im- 

 proved. It formed the mail road from Dublin to Liver- 

 pool, and it was considered of importance to render it as 

 safe and level as possible. The principal new cuts on 

 this line were those along the rugged skirts of the huge 

 Penmaen-Mawr ; around the base of Penmaen-Bach to 

 the town of Conway ; and between St. Asaph and Holy- 

 well, to ease the ascent of Rhyall Hill. But more 

 important than all, as a means of completing the main 



1 Evidence of William Waterhouse before the Select Committee, 10th March, 

 1819. 



