Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/115

 Mr. John Eames, called in; and Examined.

You keep the White Horse, Fetter-lane, and are the proprietor of the Angel Inn, St. Clement's?—Yes.

You are the proprietor of several mail and stage coaches?—Yes.

How many horses do you keep?—About three hundred.

What are the principal roads you are in the habit of working from London?—We work the Canterbury, the Cambridge, the Dover, the Norwich, the Portsmouth, and some others.

Do you find that you sustain much inconvenience from the state of the roads over which you travel?—Yes. As to inconvenience, I find much more in the neighbourhood of London than the more distant parts.

How long do you find that your horses upon an average last, that are employed in the first stages from London?—My horses, upon an average, don't last above three years in the fast coaches.

Including the mails?—Yes.

And those horses in the neighbourhood of London, are of greater value than those employed at a distance?—They are.

Upon an average, how long do the horses last that are employed in the more distant parts?—They last as long again.

Do you attribute that in a great degree to the badness of the roads in the neighbourhood of London?—I attribute it to the distress the horse receives from the badness of the roads near town; but I attribute it also in a great degree to the meeting of different carriages, and crossing the road, which makes it more laborious to the horse, though he does not appear to go so many miles.

Do you not consider that that particular evil is occasioned in a great degree by the convexity of the roads in the neighbourhood of London, the materials being generally heaped up in the middle?—I do; it "tears their hearts out," as the coachmen ex