Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-03-23
English and Roman Highways.

Nineteenth Century.
In England, as elsewhere, the R9-
mans were our great masters in the
art of road making. A thousand
years OF disuSe have not sufficed to
obliterate from the face of the country
traces of the long lines OF roadway
which connected their principal camps
and stations with each other. Some of
them will serve as the foundation of
modern highways. But, for the most
part being designed and executed for
military purposes alone, they remain
simply as monuments to attest the en-
ergy and the engineering skill of a
race who were at one time the indis-
putable masters of what was then the
civilized world. Our Saxon forefathers
were far behind them in this respect
Despite the example which had been
set them, their ideas of local self-gov-
eminent gIavitated in a very different
direction. The withdrawal of the con-
trolling and originating central author.
ity told in England, as it did elsewhere,
against the continuation of the inter
course which had previously existed
between localities distant from each
other. Great as was the capacity for
managing their own affairs DISPLAYED
by the various districts into which
England became split up after the
departure of the Romans, there is NO
blinking the fact that the roads. even
in the most freQuented parts of the
country, became steadily worse. The
old Roman streets were no longer
kept in repair, partly, no doubt, because
the exigenceS of trade refused to be
wrapped in the lines of strategical con-
venience, but partly also, it must be
admitted, because public opinion was
by no means alive to the necessity of
good roads at all. The commerce of
the country, such as it was, was car
ried on mainly by means of pack-hors-
es. Chariots had ceased to be used for
the purpose of war: su n wains as
there were had their cumbrous fabric
supported upon wheels hewn out of a
solid block of wood, which creaked and
groaned as they tumbled along over
the hardest and most gravely tracks
which could be found for them. Where
ever firm soil was wanting each wag-
oner picked out for himself a new line
of country, warned against boys and
marshes by the apparent failures of
those who had Immediately preceded
him. Where the land had begun to be
lnclosed, and the soil was tenacious,
lanes" of enormous width were left
to serve as the main arteries of
traffic, each vehicle during winter care
fully avoiding old tracks as leading to
certain break-downs. The results of
this primitive order of things may still
be traced distinctly all over that large
portion Of the south of England which
remains uninclOsed, and even in those
parts of the midland counties where
the population has not increased rapid
ly, and traces are still left of the con-
iguration of the country. Macaulay
has left us striking description of the
state of their sister country in this re.
spect so late as the time of William III.
We know how it Jared with Scotland
before the days of General Wade, so
celebrated for his rOad-making exploits.
Nor have we reason to believe that any
zeal advance was made in road-making
science in England itself until the use
of wheeled carriages became general,
and the construction of something like
sound ground upon which they could
travel became in consequence a neces-
sity.