358 



TurnpiJce and Parish Roads. 



the patience of my readers if I dwell some little time on this 

 most important matter, the form of the road;" for, without it^ 

 time, labour, and materials are thrown away, or, to say the least 

 of. it, uselessly and lavishly expended. A slightly convex form, 

 which can be most accurately described as being a small segment 

 of a large circle, by which you get a clear and open drainage, is 

 that which is the nearest to perfection, which every one ap- 

 pears to know, but which is seldom or never perfect in any road 

 repaired in the usual manner, and left to the mercy of carters 

 and labourers to shoot down the repairing materials where they 

 please, without considering for one moment whether the road is 

 or is not in proper form or state to receive the materials then 

 laying on. Nine roads out of ten, repaired in the usual manner, 

 have hollow places in the middle, and from whence the water can 

 never get off; others will be found to have too high ridges or 

 shoulders just at the edge of the water-table ; and oftentimes the 

 water-table cut down so low and so precipitous from these ridges 

 or shoulders, that a heavy-laden coach or waggon, in dark nights 

 or foggy weather, would inevitably be upset by going into these 

 ill-formed and dangerous water-tables. The first thing that 

 should be done is to lower these two ridges or shoulders, and 

 where the water-table is too deep the earth or gravel re- 

 moved from these ridges or shoulders should be thrown into 

 the water-table until the road assumes the form above men- 

 tioned. This operation will always be met with great oppo- 

 sition by old-fashioned surveyors and men who have worked 

 many years on the roads, as they say " the shoulders keep 

 up the road." However, until these unseemly ridges are re- 

 moved, no road can be got into proper form to receive fresh 

 materials ; and, where it is practicable, every road should have 

 an edge or verge on each side, one of which may be the foot-path, 

 and the other side where the depots of gravel are to be placed, 

 and it is the miile-man's business to keep these edges well defined 

 and neat, forming the boundaries of the water-table, which should 

 be about 7 inches, but never exceeding 12 inches, lower than the 

 centre of the road, upon a road 25 or 30 feet wide, with one regu- 

 lar easy fall for the water to run without any impediment. I met 

 with difficulty at first to make the men understand the form, 

 having to work against the before -mentioned prejudice of the 

 shoulders keeping up the road." I at last had a level made 7 

 inches or 1 foot deeper at one end than the other, describing the 

 proper form for one half of the road, the deep or broad end of the 

 level placed in the water-table and the narrow end in the centre 

 of the road; and until the bob-line hung true the road was not in 

 proper form for receiving the fresh materials to be put on, as 

 shall be hereafter described. It would far exceed the limits of 



