ROAD. 
sure-footed, even when running with some rapidity. In Milan 
both kinds of pavements are mixed in the same streets; the 
smooth in two doublelines, for the wheels of carriages coming 
and going, and the rougher in the intermediate parts, for the 
feet of the horses, as in the British rail-roads. But in none 
of these cities is there much heavy traffic to wear these well- 
arranged surfaces into such inequalities, as would probably 
soon be observed in the streets of London, if they were so deli¬ 
cately formed; although, when this deterioration actually took 
place, the locomotion would be luxurious both for the horses 
and for the passengers, and only ruinous to the coachmakers. 
The Romans used large and heavy blocks for their roads,'Cut¬ 
ting them on the spot into such forms as enabled them to be 
best adjusted to those ofthe neighbouringstones, thoughseldom 
exactly rectangular in their surfaces; and even at Pompeii, 
where the ruts are worn half through the depth of the blocks, 
the bottom remains tolerably even, in a longitudinal direction, 
at least as much so as would be required for carts and other 
carriages of business. 
We shall now proceed to consider the unpaved or gravelled 
roads. Though many excellent old roads of this kind are to 
be found in various parts of England, it does not appear that 
they were constructed on any rational principles until the pre¬ 
sent day. They seem, on the contrary, to owe their excellence 
to fortuitous circumstances, or to rules derived from very irre¬ 
gular and confined experiments. We shall pass over the se¬ 
veral authors who have written largely on the subject before 
Mr. M‘Adam; because the opinions of that gentleman seem 
to have superseded, with competent judges, all those of his 
predecessors; and indeed his principles answer as completely 
in practice, as in theory they are simple and obvious. We 
shall accordingly confine ourselves to a brief abstract of his 
plan. His leading principle is, that a road ought to be con¬ 
sidered as an artificial flooring, forming a strong, smooth, 
solid surface, at once capable of carrying great weights, and 
over which carriages may pass without meeting any impedi¬ 
ment. 
He proceeds to give directions for repairing an old road, 
and for making a new one, in the form of a communication 
to a committee appointed by the House of Commons, in the 
year 1819, with some subsequent corrections. 
No additional materials, he observes, are to be brought 
upon a road, unless in any part of it there be not a quantity of 
clean stone equal to ten inches in thickness. 
The stone already in the road, supposing it to have been 
made in the usual manner, is to be loosened and broken, so 
that no piece may exceed six ounces in weight; the road is 
then to be laid as flat as possible, leaving only a fall of three 
inhhes from the middle to the sides, when the road is thirty 
feet wide. The stones, thus loosened, are to be dragged to 
the side by a strong heavy rake, with teeth two inches and a 
half in length, and there broken; but the stones are never to 
be broken on the road itself. 
When the great stones have been removed, and none are 
left exceeding six ounces in weight, the surface is to be made 
smooth by a rake, which will also settle the remaining ma¬ 
terials into a better consistence, bringing up the stone, and 
letting the dirt fall down into its place. 
The road being so prepared, the stone that has been broken 
by the side is then to be carefully spread over it; this opera¬ 
tion requires very particular attention, and the future quality 
of the road will greatly depend on the manner in which it is 
performed; the stone must not be laid on in shovels full, but 
scattered over the surface, one shovel-full following another, 
and being spread over a considerable space. 
Only a small part of the length of the road should be lifted 
in this manner at once; that is, about two or three yards; 
five men in a gang should be employed to lift it- all across, 
two continually digging up and raking off the large stones, 
and preparing the road for receiving them again, and the 
other three breaking them at the side of the road. It may, 
however, happen, that the surveyor may see cause to distri¬ 
bute the labour in a proportion somewhat different. 
The only proper method of breaking stones, in general, 
both for effect and for economy, is in a sitting posture. The 
, Vol. XXII. No. 1489. 
129 
stones are to be placed in small heaps, and women, boys, 
and old men, past hard labour, may sit down and break 
them with small hammers into pieces not exceeding six 
ounces in weight. When the heavy work of a quarry can be 
performed by men, and the lighter by their wives and chil¬ 
dren, the stone can be obtained by contract for two-thirds of 
the former prices, although the stones were then left four times 
as large. It has also been recommended by Mr. M'Adam 
and others (p. 35) that the largest stone employed should not 
exceed the measure of an inch in its greatest dimensions, or 
in other words, that it it should be capable of being contained 
in a sphere about an inch in diameter, which would seldom 
weigh more than a single ounce. 
In some cases it would be unprofitable to lift and relay a 
road, even if the materials should have been originally too 
large; for example, the road betwixt Bath and Cirencester 
was made of large stones, but so friable, that ‘in lifting they 
would have fallen into sand; in this case, Mr. M'Adam 
merely had the higher parts cut down, and replaced when 
sifted, and the surface kept smooth, until those materials were 
gradually worn out; and they were afterwards replaced by 
stones of a better quality, properly prepared. At Egham, it 
was necessary to remove the whole road, in order to separate 
the small portion of valuable materials from the mass of soft 
matter in which they were enveloped, and which was carried 
away, at a considerable expense, before a good road could be 
made. But although freestone is by no means calculated to 
make a durable road, yet, by judicious management, it may 
be made to form a very good road as long as it lasts. 
Whenever new stone is to be laid on a road already con¬ 
solidated, the hardened surface is to be loosened with a pick, 
in order to enable the fresh materials to unite with the old. 
A new' road, however well it may have been made, will 
always receive the impressions of the carriage w'heels until it is 
hardened; a careful person must, therefore, attend the road 
for some time, in order to rake in the tracks made by the 
wheels; that is, as long as any loose materialsare left that can 
be so employed. 
It is always superfluous, and generally injurious, to add to 
the broken stone any mixture of earth, clay, chalk, or any 
other matter that will imbibe water, and be affected by frost; 
or to lay any thing whatever on the clean stone for the pur¬ 
pose of binding it; for good stove, well broken, will always 
combine by its own roughness into a solid substance, with 
a smooth surface, that will not be affected by the vicissitudes 
of weather, or disfigured by the action of wheels, which as 
they pass over it without a jolt, will consequently be incapa¬ 
ble of doing it any considerable injury. ~ 
The experience of the year 1820 strongly confirmed the 
inutility and inconvenience of employing chalk with the 
stone. In January, when a hard frost was succeeded by a 
Sudden thaw, a great number of roads broke up, and the 
wheels of carriages penetrated into the original soil; in par¬ 
ticular it w-as observed, that all the roads, of which chalk was 
a component part, bceame nearly impassable; and even roads 
made over chalky soils gave way in most places. But not 
one of the roads, that had been thoroughly made after these 
directions, was observed to give way. (pp. 44. 46-.) 
The tools required for lifting roads, are 1. Strong picks, but 
short from the handle to the point. 2. Small hammers, 
weighing about a pound, with the face the size of a shilling, 
well steeled and with a short handle. 3. Rakes, with wooden 
head?, ten inches in length, and with iron teeth, about two 
and a half inches long, and very strong, for raking out large 
stones when the road is broken up, and for. keeping it smooth 
after it has been finished, and while it is consolidating. 4. 
Very light broad-mouthed shovels, to spread the broken stonps, 
and to form the road. 
The whole expense of lifting and newly forming a rough 
road, to the depth of four inches, has generally been frpm a 
penny to twopence per square yard, being more or less, 
according to the quantity of stone to be broken. With pro¬ 
per tools, and by proper arrangements, stone may be broken 
for tenpence or a shilling per ton, including, in some cases, 
the value of the stone itself. A very material advantage of 
' H ' Mr. 
