Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/72

 *vious beds of stone are called the bottoming of the road, and are of various thickness, according to the caprice of the maker, and generally in proportion to the sum of money placed at his disposal. On some new roads, made in Scotland, in the summer of 1819, the thickness exceeded three feet.

That which is properly called the road, is then placed on the bottoming, by putting large quantities of broken stone or gravel, generally a foot or eighteen inches thick, at once upon it.

Were the materials of which the road itself is composed, properly selected, prepared, and laid, some of the inconveniences of this system might be avoided; but in the careless way in which this service is generally performed, the road is as open as a sieve to receive water; which penetrates through the whole mass, is received and retained in the trench, whence the road is liable to give way in all changes of weather.

A road formed on such principles has never effectually answered the purpose which the road-*maker should constantly have in view; namely, to make a secure, level flooring, over which carriages may pass with safety, and equal expedition, at all seasons of the year.

If it be admitted, as I believe it is now very generally, that in this kingdom an artificial road