

CONTOUR MAPS 157 



which were important in those days are important still, though 

 a few have died out, degenerated into mere villages, or been 

 replaced by other towns situated in their neighbourhood. 

 Although later and present-day needs are on the whole different, 

 the main lines of communication remain much the same, the 

 shortest, quickest, and most convenient from one point to another. 

 In certain cases the old roads have degenerated or even dis- 

 appeared, but in the majority they have been followed, first by 

 coach roads, then by modern roads, and lastly by railways. 



Several of the trunk railways follow on the whole the broad 

 direction of the Roman roads, especially those radiating out from 

 London ; but they differ in detail, either finding easier routes 

 to avoid the principal obstacles, or dealing with them by means of 

 bridges and viaducts, embankments, cuttings, and tunnels. Note 

 should be taken of the lines taken by the chief northern and 

 western railways to deal with such obstacles as the Chiltern 

 range, the Edge Hills or Cotswolds, the Pennine range, the 

 Lake district, the North Welsh mountains, and the southern 

 uplands of Scotland ; the rivers Severn, Humber, and Mersey, 

 Tay and Forth ; and the Menai Straits. Equally instructive is 

 it to study the course of the southern lines in dealing with the 

 North and South Downs and other ranges in south-eastern 

 England. The different routes from London to Brighton are full 

 of interest, the earlier avoiding obstacles by passing round them, 

 the later going more and more direct as greater speed was required 

 and increased engineering skill was available in dealing with these 

 obstacles. Such a study brings out the influence of physical 

 features in giving importance to towns situated in places 

 on which lines of transport must inevitably converge. In this 

 light such places as Basingstoke, Horsham, Lewes, and Tonbridge 

 might be considered in the south ; and such towns as Crewe, 

 Normanton, Derby, Didcot, Oxford, Shrewsbury, and Carlisle in 

 the north. 



In the same way the routes of water transport may be studied. 

 First the navigable rivers, those which have a gentle gradient and 

 abundant water, which flow in wide open valleys and pass through 

 regions capable of producing wealth in some form or other. Then 

 the canals, which either supply the place of navigable rivers or 



