JOHN METCALF. 6i 



owe the original idea. Both Metcalf's and Stephenson's 

 plans coincided in so much that they isolated their 

 road partly from the surface of the bog and yet made 

 it float thereon simply by means of a sufficient ex- 

 tension of bearing surface, in the same way that snow- 

 shoes sustain a man's weight, or a raft floats on water, 

 which it would have a better chance of doing on a bog 

 since its consistency is greater; in fact, a gentleman 

 living in the neighbourhood of Chatmoss, over which 

 Stephenson formed his railway, having brought some 

 of the moss land into cultivation, used to provide his 

 horses with flat wooden soles or pattens to enable them 

 to w^alk over the bog. In the same way Stephenson 

 floated his road capable of sustaining a locomotive 

 and an accompanying train. 



Metcalf, when surveying for his roads, always 

 carried a very long hooked staff, and went quite 

 unattended. He also constructed or altered the roads 

 over the Peak, in Derbyshire. 



The last road that Metcalf constructed was that 

 between Haslingden and Accrington, with a branch 

 road to Bury. Owing to numerous canals being made 

 at the time, there was plenty of employment, and wages 

 were high, so that, although Metcalf finished the w^ork 

 satisfactorily and received ^3,500 for doing so, yet 

 he found that he had lost exactly ^40 after his two 

 years of labour and anxiety. Thus did his connection 

 with road-making cease, in 1792, when he was seventy- 

 five years of age, after which he retired to his farm at 

 Spofforth, near Weatherby. 



The advantao-es of internal communication throuQ-h- 

 out a country by means of roads can not be sufficiently 

 prized. The pack-horse has been superseded by the 

 waggon, the waggon by the coach, and the coach 



