Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/247

 exactly, the particulars that I know to be wrong in roads; I found the water-ways, and things connected with keeping the roads dry, exceedingly neglected in the country.

Be so good as to state what defects you observed in the construction of the roads, besides those you have already mentioned?—I think the water-ways were extremely neglected, and the roads in general were covered with water, and many of them standing in wet. It was a practice formerly to dig a trench when they made the new road. There was a hollow way, and a great deal of the bad quality of roads in general was owing to the circumstance that the road was standing in water. I think that was one very great error formerly; but the roads were made upon no principle; there seemed to be no object; the persons who made them did not seem to understand there was some object to be gained; they had no other idea of mending a road than bringing a great quantity of material, and shooting it on the ground. When a road got into entire disrepair, the next thing was to bring a quantity of the same kind of unprepared material, and to shoot it upon the road.

Did you find that they made use of bad material when a better was to be procured?—I found that to be very universally the case, that the tops of the quarries, and that to be easily procured, was taken in general, and the best stone left behind. I am afraid that is too much the custom in the country still.

Did you find they put these materials on the road in an unprepared and unfit state?—I did; they were not broken, nor in many cases cleaned.

Have you any thing further to state with regard to the construction of the road?—No; I do not recollect any thing further I can state.

What inquiry did you make into the management of the funds of the different trusts?—I made it a business to inquire generally of the surveyors, workmen, and people on the roads,