114 Notes and JRefledions during a Tour : — 



prietors, by preventing their purchase for the public benefit, 

 has produced that circuitousness and those abrupt turnings, 

 which we find in some places, and which, however inconve- 

 nient to the public, may be considered as so many tributes to^ 

 the inviolability of individual property, as well as proofs of 

 want of patriotism, of selfishness, or of obstinacy in indivi- 

 duals. 



In France and Germany the roads proceed in direct lines 

 from one town to another ; they are everywhere of the same 

 width, and every where, as far as practicable, formed in the 

 same manner. The reason is, the roads in these countries have 

 for centuries been under the direction of the central govern- 

 ments ; probably more or less so since the time of the Romans. 

 Why governments on the Continent, and not in England, took 

 the direction of the roads, is accounted for by considering that 

 roads on the Continent form almost the only means of com- 

 munication between one government and another, while Bri- 

 tain communicates with other governments by the seas. 



No small part of the beauty of English scenery results from 

 the windings of her roads, and the ever-varying disposition of 

 trees and hedge-rows which border them ; and no small part 

 of the formal grandeur and sameness of many parts of Conti- 

 nental scenery is the result of the interminable avenue of elms, 

 poplarsj or fruit trees, which accompanies the traveller. 



The roads of Britain and the Continent may differ in pictu- 

 resque effect, and yet equally answer their principal object, the 

 most direct and easy access from one point to another. When the 

 surface is level, the advantage of the straight line, in this respect, 

 is obvious; but, unfortunately, where the system of straight lines 

 prevails, the lines are carried indiscriminately over hills and 

 through valleys, gaining nothing in point of distance, and losing 

 much in point of ease and beauty. The fault of the irregular 

 or curvilinear roads of England^is that of changing the direc- 

 tion at every trifling obstacle, and thus rendering it circuitous, 

 and sometimes dangerous, from abrupt turnings. The faults, 

 however, both of the straight-lined and curved-lined roads 

 are rapidly disappearing; thos-e recently laid out, both in France 

 and England, combine the good parts of each system, and 

 have attained to a high degree of perfection. The Brighton 

 road, though carried through a country presenting no difficulties, 

 is still a very good example of an improved modern road, well 

 directed or laid out, properly formed, and carefully kept, on 

 Mr. M'Adam's principle. It is remarkable that a consider- 

 able part of a road so near the metropolis should pass through 

 a country, the Wealds of Sussex, comparatively uncultivated 

 0-nd uninhabited : but this is accounted for partly from the 



