THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



APRIL, 1829. 



PART I. 



ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



Art. I. Notes and Reflections made during a Tour through Part 

 of France and Germany^ in the Autumn of the Year 1828. By 

 the Conductor. 



{Continued from p. 9.) 



London to Brighton^ August 29. 1828. — The roads of Bri- 

 tain are characteristic of the people and the government ; their 

 irregular natural-like direction, bold and free, and yet some- 

 times constrained and awkward, is a consequence of the 

 independence of local legislation, and of the security and in- 

 violability of individual property. Till lately some of the 

 principal roads were crooked, of irregular widths, and cir- 

 cuitous in their direction, even in the neighbourhood of the 

 metropolis ; and the manner of forming and repairing roads 

 differed in almost every district. The reason is, these roads 

 have risen, like the English Constitution, by degrees, out of 

 the wants of the people, in their progress from a rude state to 

 that of regular civilisation; in districts where commerce created a 

 demand for good roads, they have been improved by the ma- 

 gistrates of the county; in others which have remained in the 

 agricultural stage, or where, from other causes, intercommu- 

 nication was of less consequence, the horse tracks of past cen- 

 turies have merely been widened to admit the passage of carts ; 

 in every district where small properties have stood in the way 

 of improvements in the direction of roads, the value of these 

 properties, or the arbitrary price set on them by their pro- 

 VoL.V. — No. 19. I 



