ON THE PAVEMENT OF ROADS AND STABLES. *247 
Dutch clinkers; but they are such clinkers as I should very 
much doubt the possibility of getting at the present day. The 
clinkers manufactured in this country are apt to be deficient in 
hardness or toughness ; and are consequently friable, and little 
better than common bricks. 
Granite has long since been introduced into stables, as forming 
a preferable flooring to pebbles; and has recently, by being cut 
into pieces shaped like, and not much larger than, bricks, been 
very successfully employed as a substitute for brick-on-edge. 
Granite is probably quite or nearly as durable as the clinker, 
and possesses the advantage of being obtainable in a genuine 
state : the only circumstances requiring particular attention be- 
ing the cutting of it into blocks of proper shape and size, and 
the laying of them down, after the manner of brick-on-edge, upon 
a solid and secure foundation, in a bed of concrete, which serves 
to fix them in their places ; and, by uniting the whole, by grout- 
ing, into one solid structure, invests the flooring with the strength 
of a sort of decumbent wall. The best specimen I have seen of 
this description of pavement was shewn to me by Mr. Braby, 
in one of his stables at Barclay and Perkins’ brewery. 
Wood, in a variety of forms, has been used as a pavement for 
stables. Broad planks have been laid down lengthwise in the 
stalls, after a plan much practised and extolled in America, 
though this has been found open to the objections which prevail 
so much against the asphalte or bituminous compositions ; viz., 
that, while the surface continues wet, it is dangerously slippery. 
On several occasions horses have slipped up upon asphalte pave- 
ments in their stalls, and, in two instances that have come to my 
knowledge, have broken their legs. 
The preferable mode of laying down wood appears to be in 
blocks, or rather a short sort of piles. Some cut the blocks in 
squares ; others, in hexagonal shapes ; while others again regard 
their form as altogether immaterial, or, indeed, prefer them va- 
rying in shape and size, so long as they tally with one another 
in length. It appears of advantage that the wooden blocks 
should be placed upon concrete, and grouted together with it; 
though there are those who contend that, providing the founda- 
tion be properly made and rammed, no concrete is necessary. 
Lastly, I must not omit to mention that, among other inno- 
vations of the kind I am speaking of, caoutchouc has been proposed, 
and in one instance laid down, as a pavement for stables. The 
report made to me of it was a favourable one. The surface 
had a pleasant sort of elastic sensation to the tread, was not 
slippery, resisted moisture, and proved even more economical 
in respect to the consumption of straw than wood ; and, withal, 
