Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/134

 deal of heart-burning in the country, and much dispute. I think the commissioners would very seldom be disposed to carry materials from one parish to another, unless for the general public good.

What depth of solid materials would you think it right to put upon a road, in order to repair it properly?—I should think that ten inches of well consolidated materials is equal to carry anything.

That is, provided the substratum is sound?—No; I should not care whether the substratum was soft or hard; I should rather prefer a soft one to a hard one.

You don't mean you would prefer a bog?—If it was not such a bog as would not allow a man to walk over, I should prefer it.

What advantage is derived from the substrata not being perfectly solid?—I think, when a road ts placed upon a hard substance, such as a rock, the road wears much sooner than when placed on a soft substance·

But must not the draught of a carriage be much greater on a road which has a very soft foundation, than over one which is of a rocky foundation?—I think the difference would be very little indeed, because the yield of a good road on a soft foundation, is not perceptible.

To use the expression to which you have alluded, as being used by the coachmen, would a carriage run so true upon a road, the foundation of which was soft, as upon one of which the foundation was hard?—If the road be very good, and very well made, it will be so solid, and so hard, as to make no difference. And I will give the Committee a strong instance of that, in the knowledge of many gentlemen here. The road in Somersetshire, between Bridgewater and Cross, is mostly over a morass, which is so extremely soft, that when you ride in a carriage along the road, you see the water tremble in the ditches on each side; and after there has been a slight frost, the vibration of the water from the carriage on the road, will be so great as to