242 ON THE PAVEMENT OF ROADS AND STABLES. 
— I mean the old pebble or cobble pavement. Constituted of a 
succession of smooth spheroid prominences, variable in magni- 
tude and most irregularly disposed, with interstices between them, 
too often from wear or neglect of repair become dangerous 
holes, it forms altogether, perhaps, one of the worst pavements 
any description of road horses can be made to go upon. In acts 
of exertion their iron shoes are eternally sliding about, losing 
their foot-holds or pivots of progression ; and when the pebbles 
are dry and polished by wear, so dangerously slippery are their 
surfaces rendered, that were it not for the interstices, or rather 
the holes, horses could not work at all upon such pavement. 
Granite, from being cut into pieces of definite size and shape, 
and so admitting of being laid down in a more regular and uni- 
form manner, has become for purposes of paving incomparably 
preferable to pebbles : indeed, by suitable preparation and pre- 
cision in laying down, so excellent a pavement is to be made of 
it, that even at the present day it is extremely doubtful in my 
mind whether it has yet been superseded. Heretofore, two grand 
faults have been committed in laying down granite pavement : 
the foundation has not been rendered sufficiently secure, and the 
blocks of stone have been too large. I will not go so far as to 
say, that the foundation should be one of concrete, but I must 
insist upon the necessity of its being rammed to a degree to 
preclude all chance of its giving way : also by cutting the 
stone into small instead of large pieces— the best shape for which 
seems to be the flat oblong -more evenness and uniformity is 
given to the surface, more stability and durability to the pave- 
ment, while the risk of slipping upon it is considerably dimi- 
nished. Indeed, as I said before, it is by no means certain that, 
with all our boasted “improvements,” on the construction of me- 
tropolitan paved streets and roads, we have as yet discovered 
any thing superior or even equivalent to a well-constituted gra- 
nite pavement. 
M‘Adam did the community good service when he directed 
their attention to the art of road-making. Prior to the publica- 
tion of his instructions on the subject, good materials were often- 
times thrown together in that promiscuous and unscientific 
manner that it was a mere matter of chance whether a good or 
a bad road resulted. Nothing can demonstrate the truth of this 
better than the present state of the broad and open thorough- 
fares at the west end of town, the squares, the parks, the pro- 
menades, and the several high roads leading from the metropolis 
into the country, in many of which pavement has been converted 
into Macadamization : for the busy thoroughfares of the city, 
however, and for streets whose narrowness and secludedness 
