Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-04
EVOLUTION OF ROADS
HOW THEY, HAVE CHANGED IN
THE COURSE OF CENTURIES.
Romans Were Great Highway Build
ers-Infnenoe Of Bicycles and
Motor Cars.


From the London Globe.
The advent, first of the bicycle and then
of the motor car has directed an attention
to the subject of roads and roadmaking
such as it has had only twice before in the
course of our history. When the Romans
came here. all the world knows, they
made the roadmaking business very lively.
and the natives probably had to devote
good deal of attention to the subject,
whether they wanted to or not. The Ro-
mans were famous roadmakers everywhere,
but when they abandoned Britain there
was nobody left to carry on the business.
lnoeed there was no motive for carrying
II on. Roads were not wanted There was
no intercourse between distant parts of the
country: there was no trade, there were
practlcaiiy no wheeled vehicles and there
was no military organization. There was
no reason at all why the Saxons Of the
Heptarchy should make or maintain roads,
put tnere was at least one excellent reason
why tney should not do SO. To make road
through any section of the country would
pc 10 facilitate the invasion of enemies
Just as few years ago it was maintained
that the construction of the channel tunnel
would do.
There were, of course, pathways through
the forests connecting the small centers of
populatlOn. and some of these developed
mo Wei-recognized bride paths and lanes.
ahora mecs II Is that in our own day rural
lhoroughfares turn and twist and ziezag
doout SO lrregularly and capriciousIy Tbev
were originally just footpaths through acct
uenlai openings in the woods. They skirted
d orru Jumps OF trees and thickets of I'M
norwood. and along the feet of steen hills
ana rocks. They meandered across plains
ana moors. heaths and downs, and thew led
NV NJ ~he.e tnere happened to be natural step
PING stones across the brook or to the
trunk of a tree that had fallen In H. 80
anu mace bridge over the water Prob
apIy all the oldest of our country lanes go
oy, wass. ana not a few important roads.
oiisinateu In Just that spontaneous unnre
uIeoitatlve manner. Their direction was a.
termlned by natural objects or accidentsI
circumstances of the time AS villages and
fheir , eoMns grew, and feudal castles and
AZ ~, Wy masters began to frown over
tne idno. the peasantry were set to imnrova
t tnese IootWays, and here and there to mato
DIloees where there had been only fords nr
thera .rs. stones. Thus in course of time
o.a, I SaeM OUT OF these primitive tracks. aII
oseI England. network of tolerablv serv-
lceaoie bride paths. along which trader.
aiu phsrlms. Ministries and mendjcan nc
~, ,,, nis ana MOBILES, ambled along on horses
~, A -. Or trudged afoot; and inns snranp
elers. VI THESE trav-
Sixteenth Century Coaches
Inc sixteenth century advent of "coa cbes,,
.as all sorts of carriages were at first call
ieatened to render a good MANY of
these bride paths obsolete, Just as in the
nineteenth century railways Threatened n
iehuer useless, and to a great extent an
tualiy did render useless the great b,gh-
ways OF the Kingdom; and at both perioda
,a,.e was very similar cutlery. Coaches
We denounced lust as railways were de-
nounced. as certain. to be the rufn NJ tha
..4. ana the upset of all established insti-
eutions; But, in spite of cutlery, Coaches,
cd ICY 1,;dnI asserted themselves and demand
GU "ioer roads. and after a fashion thew
were made But there were no such nor
sons as skilled roadmakers The Rornan
methods had been lost twelve hundred wears
nei9le. ana new tracks for vehicles were
.ldue without any sort Of method and with
just sucn materials as happened to be AT
nand There was legislation from time To
tlme. In Queen Mary's time for instance
an n ACT mace eaeh parish responsible for its
country a good deal of this kind of work
must always have been going on but an
lsolated were the various efforts and so
slight We're the means of dissemina ting In
formation on the subject that absoIuteIv
no progress seems to have been made even
In the immediate vicinity of large towns.
In 1855 Mr.. Nash stated before a commit
tee OF the house of commons that the road
between Camberwell and the Elephant and
castle was In several places hardly passa-
BILE by vehicles. and that quite recently sew
eral carriages had had their perches broken
by the pitching about in holes and ruts If
that was the condition of things ronnd
about London in 1875. it is easy to believe
reports of what they were a little earlier
In date and little further afield In 172.
George II and Queen Caroline were a whole
night in coming from Kew to ST. James
Palace, owing to the state of the road. and
once during the night they were completely
overturned. One may read of a foreign
prince come on a visit to this country pet.
Vnad tn ,-ax alt,
from Portsmouth, and spending fourteen
hours at a stretch without being able to
leave his carriage or get mouthfuI of food
IN the middle of the eighteenth century tha
Duke OF Somerset. having occasion to tray
ell from London to Petworth sent a servant
on before him to herald his approach. and
to give orders that keepers and other per-
sons having knowledge of the hoIes and
sloughs should meet his grace with lanterns
and poles to help him on his way But
what no doubt had good deal to do with
the general apathy on the matter was the
fact that in times when most of the land
OF the country was uninclosed it was often
a very easy thing, when a road had been
trampled and ploughed into slough. to
strike off the old track and make a new
one.
John Metcalf.
Nothing could more strikingly show the
absolute lack of professional roadmakers
than the fact that the very first expert in
who not only had had no experience when
he took his first contract. but had been
stone blind from his childhood. That was
John Metcalf-"Blind Jack of Knaresbor-
ough." It had been determined in 1765 to
make good. substantial road between Min.
skip and Farnsby. and Metcalf put in a
tender for three miles. He knew nothing
about 1t, but he had proved himself in
other ways clever, enterprising man. and
as there was nobody to be had who under
stood the business any better than he did
he got the contract. He made his own sur
veys and superintendent the work PERSONAL
ly, and Notwithstanding his blindness made
a good job of 1T. He was roadmaking and
bridge building for thirty years, and seems
unquestionably entitled to be regarded as
the pioneer of English roadmaking. 1t was
not until fifty years after he began that
Telford and Macadam were heard OF in this
connection. He led the way, and actually
carried a road across bog in almost pre-
cisely the manner in which Stevenson after
ward carried his railway across Chat Moss.