A treatise on roads, their history, character, and utility : being the substance of two lectures delivered before the Young men's association of the city of Albany

Front matter

Gass TE\4-sS Book ^"B>6S

HISTORY, CHARACTER AND UTILITY;

EEISG THE

Chapter II

When the seat of emph-e was transferred from the Tiber to the Bosphorus, the power and resources of the imperial city declined, and her roads, bridges and aqueducts went to decay. These monuments of her greatness fell beneath the hand of time and the ruthlessness of invasion ; and though they had indirectly favored the propagation of Christianity, and the historians of the church admit the facilities of communication afforded by them, they were suffered to remain unrepaired, and the distant provinces, and the remote population that had felt the energies of the great central power, were now left to their own resources, and their own opinions.

Darkness gradually overspread the world, and for a time, covered with its gloomy pall the literature, the arts, and the trophies of former ages. The human intellect, although visited by the day-spring from on high, withdrew from the consideration of the true objects and responsibilities of life, to lose itself in dreamy abstractions, and gave up the realities of exis^tence for a philosophy of shadowless images. The natural repugnance of the Christians of those days to the works of heathen art, which is supposed by some to have hastened their decay, was not a little aided by a decree of the Council of Carthage, which in the year 398, prohibited the reading of secular books by the clergy. Physical science could not prosper in such a state of things, and a ''jargon of mystical philosophy half fanaticism and half imposture, a barren and inflated philology," if we may credit the historians of that day, characterized this period. After the introduction of monkery, says Hallam, and its unsocial theory of duties, the serious and reflecting part of mankind on whom science mostly relies, was turned to habits which, in the most favorable view, could not quicken the intellectual energies.

The final settlement of barbarous nations in Gaul, Spain and Italy, consummated the ruin of those arts by which Rome had become the mistress of the world.

One of the legacies which she had left to her distant provinces was her roads. The island of Britain had her share, and their position is well known to antiquarians. Indeed there is a book extant, called the Iter Brittanicum, attributed to the Emperor Antinous, which is an itinerary, containing the names and direction of the roads in that island. It was this emperor who distinguished himself as a restorer of the public works, and the rebuilder of public edifices; and who declared that he preferred the preservation of one citizen to the death of a hundred enemies. These British roads served principally as a means of communication between the military posts. It is the generally received opinion among the antiquarians, that the southern part of the island was crossed in various places by four great roads, and these are well known and particularly described, as the Fosse, Watling St., Ermine St., and the Ikenild.

The Fosse commenced at Totness, in Devonshire, and ran to Bristol, Cirencester, Coventry, Leicester, Newark and Lincoln.

Watling St. commenced at Dover and proceeded through Kent by the way of Canterbury to London ; thence northwardly to Edgeware, St. Albans, Dunstable, Stony Stratford, and along the western boundary of Leicestershire ; it crossed the Fosse near Bosworth, and terminated at York and Chester le Street in Durham. Some persons imagine that it was subsequently continued to Caithness in Scotland.

The Ermine St., ran from St. Davids, Wales, to Southampton, crossing the Fosse in its way.

The Ikenild is supposed to have commenced on the eastern coast of England, then to have crossed Watling St. at Dunstable, and to have proceeded thence northwardly through Staffordshire to the west coast.*

The remains of old Roman roads are now frequently discovered in England, and it is a singular fact and worthy of notice, that Sir Christopher Wren, when preparing to erect the church of St. Mary-le-bone, found one of these causeways eighteen feet below the surface of the ground ; and so exceedingly firm was its texture, and so firmly cemented its material, that he actually erected the tower of the church upon it, as the best foundation he could possibly obtain.

These roads were constantly traversed by the military, who had their stations erected

" In the United Service Journal for January, 1836, is an account of a recent survey of a Roman road frora Silchester, made by Bome officers of the Royal Military College.

TREATISE ON ROADS.

at proper distances, to preserve their supplies. Some of these points became marts of trade, and it is conceded by the early historians of England, that these works of the Romans materially benefitted their country, and gave an impetus to the national industry.

France, then Gaul, was also traversed in every quarter by these military roads, which are fully treated of in the French Encyclopedia. One of them crossed the mountains of Auverne, and reached Aquitaine ; another followed the Meuse to the German ocean ; another went through Burgundy, Champagne, and Picardy to Boulogne ; another extended along the Rhone and stopped at Marseilles. All these were connected, by numerous branch roads, and their ruins are still discernible to the eye of the traveller.

The departure of the Romans from these countries, was the signal for intestine commotions, and bloody invasions by foreign enemies hitherto held in check by the terror of the Roman name. They had in consequence neither time nor ability to keep up the communications wiiich had for several hundred years been established by their conquerors. It would be a tedious task to follow the ancient Britons through their succeeding history. The sway of their Druid priests, and the ignorance in which they kept the people, tended as mucii to the downfall of the nation, as the hundred years of war, which ended in their complete subjugation. It is not strange that their roads, their walls and their towns almost ceased to exist. Imagine, for a moment that such a series of misfortunes as these were the lot of our own country, and where would the future historian find the monuments of our greatness. If one disastrous fire effaces a large portion of the most valuable quarter of a city within our own observation and in our brief day, what must be the effect of a century of bloodshed and conflagration'? Britain, says the eloquent Gibbon, was for a time lost among the fabulous islands of the ocean.

It is ascertained with considerable certainty, that previous to the conquest by the Romans, the natives had trackways, called in their language, post-ways and ridge-ways. They were neither paved nor faced with gravel, but were covered with turf. Narrow roads were called passes, and in order to render them secure to travellers, the woods which skirted them were cut down, The

Romans are said to have adopted some of these routes.

A discussion has prevailed to some extent as to the fact whether at this period any other mode of transportation vs^as adopted, than that of pack-horses ; but the best authorities are strenuous in the affirmative. The internal trade of the country, as may be imagined, was very trifling for many hundred years, although local regulations were made to encourage it, such as the establishment of weekly markets and mints in the principal towns. It is a remarkable circumstance that the most important part of the trade consisted in the sale of slaves taken in their domestic wars. The nearest relatives did not hesitate when they had the opportunity, to sell each other into captivity, and slave merchants visited England as late as the time of the Roman conquest, to purchase its sons and daughters for the Spanish and African mart, for those of Italy, and still nearer home, for those also of Ireland.

The slave trade of our own time is not more cruel in its character, nor is it conducted with greater energy, than that was to which we refer. William of Malmsbury says, it was a custom which seemed to be natural to the people, and the biographer of a pious prelate of that time, speaks of the horrors and iniquities of the traffic with such warrnth, as to call forth the indignation of every honest breast. The sale of some very fine looking young men in the city of Rome, gave Gregory the Great the first idea of sending missionaries to their native country.

In 1285, and not till then, did the subject of roads become sufficiently important to attract the attention of the government, when the first act was passed in relation to them.

In 1346, Edward the third was empowered to levy a toll on carts or carriages going from St. Giles in the field to Temple bar. In the time of Henry VIII. an attempt was made to procure the improvement of the roads, by compelling the parishes through which they passed to keep them in repair by rates levied on land-holders, and labor enforced on others. An essential improvement also took place in the reign of Philip and Mary, w^hen the annual appointment of rdad surveyors was authorised to be made by the inhabitants. Some further alterations were then made to the existing laws, by Mary and Elizabeth, and in the time of James I., and Charles I. and II. the system of toll-gates was adopted ill consequence of the increase of travel, which injured the roads without furnishing the necessary means of repair. The first toll was exacted in the reign of Charles II. upon persons travelling on the great northern road. This for a time proved to be an unpopular measure. The people rose and pulled down the gates, and an armed force was ordered out to maintain the law. The landholders remonstrated against tolls, because in their opinion they reduced the value of their property; — a notion which experience soon corrected. But though the owners of the soil saw their error, yet as late as the reign of George II,. it was necessary to prevent the pulling down of toll bars by declaring it to be a felony. A multitude of enactments followed from time to time, but it was not till after 1760 that turnpikes became general.

Between that year and 1774 452 turnpike acts were passed, and between 1785 and 1809 no less than 1062 more. The details of the system by which they are managed, are fully given by numerous writers on the subject, and copious extracts are given in the latter part of this treatise. Parnell, Dupin, Edgeworth and McCulloch, are parti- 8 cularlj worthy of the study of those who would thoroughly understand the legislative history of roads in England. Notwithstanding all that had been done, down to the middle of the last century they were almost impassable for wheel carriages. As these have been modified from the original forms into their present elegant and convenient shape, by the progress of refinement and the improvement of the public roads, a glance at their progress may not be uninteresting. Some authorities contend, that for many hundred years after the departure of the Romans, nothing but pack horses were used for the conveyance of goods, and that wheel carriages were unknown. This is not so. A particular account of no less than six different kinds of vehicles is preserved — The Benna, Petoritum, Currus, Covinus, Essedum, and Rheda. The Benna was used by travellers, and the Currus was the common waggon of the country, appropriated to agricultural and mercantile purposes. The others were chiefly of a military character. The Essedum is mentioned in Caesar's Commentaries, and its peculiar form was adapted to the mode of fighting then habitual with the Britons. An animated description of an ancient war chariot is to be found in Ossian, in which he styles it " the flame of death." Besides the usual method of travelling on horseback, litters were also in vogue. Subsequently the queens of the different small kingdoms into vdiich England was for a time divided, enjoyed the exclusive privilege of the car or chariot, and one of them is said to have hung up in a bag, with her most esteemed relics, that in which she occasionally rode. These machines must have been very rude of construction however, when the greatest improvement made on them by the Saxons is said to have been the substitution of a hammock swung between four posts mounted on wheels upon which the passenger reclined. In some of the earliest specimens of English poetry we find mention made of the chare, or charat then in use. There are accounts of coaches as early as 1253, and it is recorded that in 1380, when the celebrated Wat Tyler rose against the crown, Richard II. fled from the tower in a covered carriage called a whirlicote. Q,ueen Catharine, one of the unhappy wives of Henry VIII., was carried to the coronation in a litter, followed by her ladies in covered chariots.

The general introduction of coaches into England is attributed to queen Elizabeth, who patronized a German or Hollander, by the name of Boonen, a coach builder from the continent. For the honor of the invention there are as many national claims preferred as there were for the birth place of Homer. With a singular sort of favor, this princess not only bought his coaches but made him her coachman, and the appearance of her equipage thus driven, was thought worthy of being preserved by an engraving. It was first used by her when she went to St. Paul's to return thanks for the destruction of the Armada. From the extreme of scarcity, these vehicles became so numerous as to become nuisances. In 1636, no less than 6000 of them, it is said, jolted about the streets of London. The satirists of the time inveighed loudly against them, and Taylor, the water poet, in particular, complained of the withdrawal of so many persons from their former employment to become through the witchcraft of the coach, " butterfly pages, trolling footmen, and hard drinking coachmen." Although it was for a long time considered effeminate in men to ride about in coaches, yet it seems to have been a matter of some importance in the then fashionable world, to see who could drive the greatest number of horses before them. It is gravely chronicled that in 1619 when the Duke of Buckingham had driven six horses in hand, he was outdone by a nobleman who proceeded through the streets of London with eight. The surprise of the citizens at this feat of daring, added to his celebrity, although it was already that of " the Percy's high born race."

Down to the time of James I. the judges rode to court on horseback, and the Lord Mayor who now rejoices in his coach and barge, was also obliged to play the equestrian, but with a vaulting ambition that often over leaped itself and fell on the other side.

Sir Walter Scott who drew many of his most pleasing descriptions from facts which lay in tradition, or lived chiefly in domestic history, has given an account of a coach in the time of Charles 11., which is to be found in his admirable novel of " Old Mortality."

The Lord Lieutenant of the county, says he, a personage of ducal rank, alone pretended to the magnificence of a wheel carriage, others covered with tarnished gilding and sculpture, in shape like the vulgar picture of Noah's ark, drawn by eight long tailed Flanders mares, carrying eight insides and six outsides. The insides w^ere their graces in person, two maids of honor, two children, a chaplain stuffed into a sort of lateral recess, formed by a projection at the door of the vehicle, and called from its appearance the boot, and an equerry to his grace ensconced in a corresponding contrivance on the opposite side. A coachman and three postillions who wore short swords, and tie wigs with three tails, having blunderbusses slung behind them and pistols at the saddle bow, conducted the equipage. On the foot board behind this moving mansion house, stood or rather hung in triple pile, six lacquies in rich liveries armed up to the teeth."

As further illustrations of the manners of a nation whose progressive importance has been so dependent on roads, the various vehicles used on state occasions would furnish an amusing picture. Were we to pursue all the bypaths which lead from our main subject, it would be impracticable to confine ourselves within the limits to which we are prescribed.

It seems that coaches were only first let to hire as late as 1625, and that the practice originated with an old naval captain of the name of Baily ; and the next year a follower of the Duke of Buckingham obtained from Charles II. the privilege of keeping Sedan chairs. A valuable chapter of statistics might be furnished on this topic as well as the preceding. Connected with the improvement of the roads was that of stage coaches, which as a public benefit, have from time to time attracted the public attention. Their speed gradually increased as the roads became better. For example, the first that ran between Edinburgh and Glasgow, in the year 1 678, a distance of forty-four miles occupied six days in going and returning : now the journey is performed in four hours. In 1706 the stage coaches went from London to York in four days, and now they perform the distance in twenty-four hours. In 1712 it took thirteen days to travel by coach from London to Edinburgh, and now it requires but forty hours! In 1760 travellers were two whole days in going from London to Brighton, now they are only about five hours. One of the greatest triumphs of modern times is that of rapid and safe traveling. The difficulties formerly attending it are alluded to constantly by the writers of those days. I.eavmg out of the account, the dangers which arose from the frequency of thefts, murder and highway robbery, which according to Hallam, became almost the national crime of England during the middle ages, we find that the bad condition of the roads had a serious effect on the national prosperity, and on individual comfort. Having illustrated by a quotation from Scott, the character of a coach in the time of one of the Stuarts, it may be well to introduce the description of a journey made by some illustrious personages, as late as the time of queen Anne. When a royal visiter from Spain attempted to pay a visit to Prince George of Denmark her husband, he found its accomplishment almost impossible. " We set out, says the narrator of the expedition, at six in the morning by torch-light, to go to Petworth, and did not get out of the coaches, only, when we were overtU7med or stuck fast in the mire ! His highness's body coach would have suffered very much if the nimble boors of Sussex had not frequently poised or supported it with their shoulders, from Godalming almost to Petworth. The last nine miles of the way cost us six hours to conquer them, and indeed we had never done it, if the king had not several times lent us a pair of his horses out of his own coach."

It seems this^ Petwortli road was no better a long time afterwards, for when a Duke of Somerset proposed to travel upon it at a certain day, a letter was sent in advance directing the keepers and persons who knew the holes and sloughs " to come to meet him with lanterns and long poles to keep him on his way." The Sussex roads then bad to a proverb, are now famous for their excellence.

In 1739 two persons undertook a journey from Glasgow to London on horseback, and they found nothing but narrow causeways until they came within 110 miles of the metropolis.

They encountered strings of pack horses thirty and forty at a time, carrying goods, the leader of the train being equipped with a bell to warn travellers coming in an opposite direction and these were generally obliged to draw on one side into the ditches so that the train could pass.

We have noticed the various characters of the roads and of the vehicles used upon 9 thenij at different periods of tiaie. The accommodations furnished by the way side require a passing notice. Industrious antiquarians have not failed to trace out all their peculiarities. At first, private dwellings were used for lodging places and houses of refreshment. Religious establishments were also compelled to entertain travellers if their hospitality was demanded. In the first part of Shakspeare's play of Henry IV. the first scene of the second act is laid in an inn-yard at Rochester, where in the brief dialogue between two carriers, many of the characteristics of the inland traffic of the time are given with graphic skill. In the opening chapter of Kenilworth, the modern Shakspeare, has given an equally vivid description of the host, the fare and the guests which were to be found in the time of Elizabeth congregated under the roof of such as Silas Gosling of the Bonny Black Bear.

From the specimens thus far given of the roads with their concomitants in England during the middle ages, we may judge very accurately of the state of them on the continent. Ex uno disce omnes. From the past we now turn to the present time. Let us now examine their present condition throughout Europe, before we pa,ss to the important considerations connected with recent discoveries in the form and management of roads. The roads of England and Wales are now computed to be upwards of 24,000 miles in length so far as they are turnpiked. And the extent of the common and private roads in the United Kingdom is estimated at 100,000 miles. The public roads are of the finest description, being constructed on scientific principles, and designed by eminent engineers The plan of construction, so far as material is concerned, is generally that of Mr. McAdam, although the notions of Mr. Telford as to the necessity of having a non elastic foundation seem now to prevail among the English engineers.

Great care is taken to leave a perfect drainage by means of deep ditches communicating with the streams and natural outlets of the country. These it is held, should be sunk at least three feet below the surface of the road, and wherever the water is likely to lie on^the surface from the nature of the slopes, or route, cross chains are always provided.

The cuttings through hills are carefully made not merely for the purpose of keeping the banks in their places, but to allow the wind and sun to have the greatest effect and therefore a slope of two feet horizontal to one perpendicular is strongly recommended.

It is also usual to protect these slopes by covering them with sods. No improvement says a writer on this subject, will be found greater than keeping the surfaces of the roads above the level of the adjacent land. A convex surface seems to be the most in use, though there are strong objections to it, and the idea does not generally prevail. The materials for a good road are various. Greenstone, granite, sandstone, and limestone are all adopted according to circumstances. A mass of valuable information on this head, has from time to time been elicited in the examinations made by committees of the House of Commons, of competent engineers, and by the various experiments undertaken to ascertain the best arrangement of the material. A dry foundation and layers of clean hard broken stone appear to be the chief object of the English road makers. They state that all those imperfectly formed with pebbles or gravel, on a loose foundation, soon wear out, for the reason that they expand readily with heat, and throw up the stones, or else absorb moisture, and loosen them. In short that the consequent wear and tear of the material lead to the destruction of the road and a constant outlay to keep them in proper order. All kinds of pavements have also been proposed in reference to this subject. Patent after patent has been taken out for the purpose of securing some supposed advantage.

As one of the natural consequences of the formation of roads, pavements became necessary, particularly in cities, where the convenience of a dense population requires that the public avenues should be kept in a passable condition, and also on those routes where the transportation of goods with the least practicable difficulty became a matter of importance to purchasers and consumers.

It is a singular fact however, as has already been incidentally seen, that the highways of the ancients were much oftener paved than the streets of their cities.

According to Isidorus, Carthage was the— \| first town in which pavements were intro- ' ^ duced, and her example was followed by her subsequent rival Rome. The exact time at which the latter adopted this improventis still ill doubt, and it has been a grave matter of inquiry not fully decided by the antiquarian critics. A passage in Livy is as yet uninterpreted in relation to this subject, although that historian speaks explicitly in other places of the pavement in the vicinity of the ox market, the Temple of Venus, and the Temple of Mars.

The city of Jerusalem has been supposed to have been paved from some circumstances in its history, and from a proposition mentioned by Josephus, as having been made by the Jevs^s to Agrippa, w^hich was to employ the ^vorkmen for that object, after they had completed the rebuilding of the temple.

All writers agree that of the modern cities Cordova in Spain, was the first which was paved, and that it was so improved in the year 850 by the Caliph Abdorrahman. One of the proofs that this prince was an enlightened man, is the fact that he favored trade, improved its avenues, and supplied his capital with water in leaden pipes.

The city of Paris was not paved even in part until the twelfth century, and as late as 1614 many principal streets were still in their original state. Even now they are not in as perfect condition as the refinement of the age, and the comfort of pedestrians require. Other large French towns followed the example of the metropolis, and it is asserted by historians of that country, that after the system of pavements became general many dangerous maladies almost entirely disappeared. London was not paved until the end of the eleventh century, and then only in part. As the wealth of the city increased, these improvements were extended, and favored by different monarchs, Berlin was first paved in 1679, and other continental towns progressively adopted the system. The regulations of the police which follow^ed its adoption in different countries, though in many respects curious, are not sufficiently important to justify their introduction into this treatise.

To practical readers it may how^ever, be interesting to glance at the different kinds of pavements now in use. Some of the cities of Italy afford fine examples of the art. The tracks for wheel carriages are composed of large blocks of limestone or sandstone, some of them at Florence weigh several tons. Tlie streets of Naples are laid with immense rectangular pieces of basalt at least six inches thick, laid in cement, forming a solid and smooth surface. Those of modern Rome are also paved with basaltic cubes set in mortar, each furnishing a surface of ten inches square.

In Russia, blocks of wood have been used, and successfully for the same object, and a similar experiment has been made in the city of New- York which thus far has been satisfactory.

There are no less than twenty-one kinds of paving used in England, well known to scientific road makers in that country.* One of the most celebrated is the Leith walk of Edinburgh formed of ashler.

In street paving at the present day, the following rules are adopted as being the result of study and experience.

All small based, or wedged shaped stones must be rejected, and all clayey particles in the stratum on which the stones are to be bedded, should be removed. The bed of the road should be well hardened by ramming and treading. An uniform elevation of the paving stones should be carefully studied, and also as great an uniformity in size. Single corners of broad or large stone should

* See Appendix.

never be laid across a street, as they form a belt which does great injury to carriages when passing over it. On the same principle, any courses of small stones laid in the same way, sink down and form a trench equally destructive. The pavement when laid down, should also be well rammed down. The object is smoothness, stability and imperviousness to water, and as these are gained, the excellence of the pavement is established.

One of the most recent improvements, if such it may yet be considered, is the introduction of a composition of asphaltum, which is poured hot from a cauldron upon the stratum of earth, previously prepared for it, and becomes hard and impermeable. Enough is not yet known of its durability to justify any opinion as to the probability of its coming into general use.

Besides the various processes recommended for the formation of roads, there are many for keeping them clean and in repair, and while the loss of material from wear and tear is obvious to the eye, calculations have been made with great accuracy, to ascertain what loss is sustained by carriages used 10 upon them and what is the comparative ease of draught upon various kinds of roads.

The draught of a waggon weighing 21 cwt. on a well made pavement as indicated in a newly invented dynamometer of Mr. McNeil, is 331bs. or in other words, the force used to draw tlie waggon over that portion of road is 331bs; over a broken stone surface of flint, 651bs ; over a gravel road, 1471bs. ; over a broken stone road on a rough pavement foundation, 461bs. ; over a broken stone surface upon a bottom of concrete, 461bs.