The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-19
EVOLUTION OF ROADS.
How They Have Changed in the
Course of Centuries.

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 his
tory. When the Romans came here, as
all the world knows, they made the
ioadmaBing business very lively, and
the natives probably had to devote a
GOOD deal of attention to the subject,
whether they wanted to or not. The
Romans were famous roadmakers ev-
erywheIe, but when they abandoned
Britain there was nobody left to carry
on the business. Indeed, there was no
fnotive Cor carrying it on Roads were
not wanted. There was no intercourse
between distant parts of the country;
there was no trade, there were practi-
cally 20 wheeled vehicles and there
was no military organization. There
was no reason at all why the Saxons
of the Heptarchy should make or main
tain roads, but there was at least one
excellent reason why they should not
do SO. TIC make a road through any
| section of the country would be to ia
cilitate the invasion of enemies, just as
| a few years ago it was maintained that
the construction of the channel tunnel
would Co.
There were, of course, pathways
through the forests, connecting the
small centers of population, and some
of these developed into we'll recognized
I
th:lL in our own day rural thorough
fares turn and twist and zigzag about
so irregularly and capriciously. They
W ere originally just footpaths through
accidental openings in the woods. They
| skirted round clumps of trees and
tfickets of underwood, and along the
feet of steep hills and rocks. They
11eandercd across plains and moors
heaths and downs, and they led to
where there happened to be natural
CT in CT
| the trunk of a tree that had fallen in
tue wind and made a bridge over the
water Probably all the oldest of our
country lanes and byways, and not a
few important roads, originated in just
| that spontaneous, unpremeditative
| manner. Their direction was determIn-
Ell by natul al objects or accidental cir
cumsi ances of the time. As Villages
and small towns grew, and feudal cas-
| ties and their lordly masters began to
frown ever the land, the peasantry
were set to improve these footways
| and here and there to make bridges
where there had been only fords OF
| stepping stones. Thus in course of time
there grew out of these primitive
| tracks, ali over England, a network OF
| toierabIy serviceable bride paths. along
| which traders and pilgrims, ministries
and mendicants, knights and mobiles
an.bled along on horses or mules, OF
| tIudged afoot: and inns sprang up &c
! meet tue VI AAACoC IL
ers.
The sixteenth century advent OF
"coaches'-as all sorts of carriages
were at first called-threatened to rem
der a good many of these bride paths
obsolete, just as in the nineteenth cen
tury railways threatened to render
useless, and to great extent actually
| did render useless, the great highways
of the kingdom; and at both periods
there was very similar outcry
Coaches were denounced just as rail-
ways were denounced. as certain to be
the ruin of the land. and the upset OF
all established institutions. But, in
| spite of cutlery, coaches gradually
asserted themselves and demanded
wider roads, and after a fashion they
were made. But there were no such
persons as. skilled roadmakers. The
Roman methods had been lost twelve
| hundred years before, and new tracks
| for vehicles were made without any
sort of method, and with just such ma
| terials as happened to be at hand