I believe, may be taken as a tolerably fair specimen of this inconvenient kind of "Landed Property."

P. 49. "Runneymead contains one hundred and sixty acres of good soil, and at present lets for twenty shillings per acre, tythe free. It is the property of ten persons, and in small parcels. After the 12th of August it is common to all the parish, who turn on an indefinite number of cattle, until March, when it is shut up again; but being subject to be flooded in the winter, it becomes poached by the number of cattle that are on at that time, to the destruction of the herbage, and consequent loss to the proprietors. This would be remedied by an inclosure, and would be worth from forty to sixty shillings per acre.

Common Fields.-The Reporters have also enumerated, and noticed the extents, the soils, and other circumstances, of the several open arable fields of the County. The subjoined list, with the extent of each field, is placed at the close of the detail.

INLAND NAVIGATION.-The Thames navigation bounds the northern margin of the County, for more than twenty miles. And the Wey" becomes navigable to the Thames at Weybridge, being of infinite benefit to the county, which it supplies with all sorts of necessaries, particularly coals from London. It is here worthy of remark, that the first locks that were constructed were erected upon this river by a gentleman of the name of Weston." p. 9.

ROADS.

ROADS. This subject, and that of planting, are the only ones, which the Reporters speak of, as practical men. Their remarks and recommendations, tho of some length, are mostly proper. Few of them, however, are new. They are similar to those which I have long been inculcating. They contain some passages, which, as corroborants, are entitled to a place, here.

On the Width of Turnpike Roads.-P. 65. "The width of a road should be just as much as the extensiveness of the thoroughfare requires; that is to say, every approach to the metropolis, and for a distance not exceeding six miles, should have a road of forty feet wide, with a foot-way on each side of ten feet: beyond that distance the road may with great propriety be reduced to thirty-four feet wide, which is sufficient for four carriages to pass abreast, and which is more than perhaps may ever meet at one time in one spot. Exceeding this width all is useless, and adds greatly to the expence of keeping in repair. The foot-way here should be eight feet wide; beyond the distance of twelve miles, and to the land's end, the road should be thirty feet, and the foot-way six feet."

Their Convexity.-P. 65. " The convexity of every road should be just so much as, according to its width, no water shall lodge on the center or on its sides, but pass quickly to the edge, which should be higher than the ditch on the other side of the foot-way."

The Reporters have given an engraved diagram of what they conceive to be the proper dimensions, and form, of public roads. The width of the carriage road, in their sketch, is twenty feet, and the rise or convexity, at the crown, two feet; with a footpath, on each side, ten feet wide-thus filling up the whole width of a Parliamentary road!

Messrs. James and Malcolm, however, have sufficient good sense to see the extravagance of such a width;-unless in the immediate environs of the metropolis; and, it may be added, in the immediate neighbourhoods of a few other large trading towns. My principal objection to their scale of roads lies in the width of cross-country roads, between town and town. Thirty feet of hard road, I conceive, is much too great. And more than one footpath, by the side of such a road, is quite unnecessary.

See my Treaties on Landed Property; or the abstract of it; for general observations on this important subject, in a civilized country.

On Watering Roads.-P. 67. "We cannot close this account without noticing the impolicy of watering the roads in the summer; for however pleasant and convenient it may be to be free from dust, yet the watering of such roads

A a 3

proves

proves by their uniform badness, at almost all seasons, how much it wears them; and the inevitable bad effect it has upon them; and therefore wherever that is practised, and pipes for the conveyance of river water are laid, it is in vain for the public to expect or to look for good roads there."

There is some truth in this statement; and the arguments upon it are not groundless. But the mischief ensuing, from the watering of roads, principally arises, I believe, not from its wearing them; but from another cause: namely that of its preventing the wind from operating in the manner it otherwise would, in the valuable work of freeing the surface from pulverized materials; and thus performing, in the least expensive and most compleat way, the requisite business of cleaning them.

The surface of unwatered roads, unless in very close situations, seldom fail, in the summer season, of being unburdened of their more finely pulverized, and no longer useful, materials,--by the wind;-leaving the partially reduced matter on the surface. This desirable circumstance not only renders a road pleasant to be travelled upon, but tends to prevent the wear of the unground materials. Whereas, by the operation of artificial scraping, this valuable matter is removed with the mud or wet dust; and is thereby more than wasted; as it requires to be farther removed as a nuisance.

On the contrary, in the neighbourhood of London, and wherever the operation of watering is practised,-by way of "laying the dust,"-it is not merely laid for the day; but, if the watering be continued, is effectually arrested;— its thickness, in dry weather, daily increasing; until a fall of rain turn the accumulated mass into a bed of mud; which is become too soft to sustain, any longer, the tread of animals, and much less the wheels of carriages; yet is too consistent to form a current. Whereas, had the same rain fallen on a surface, free or nearly free from dust, or other encumberance, it would have tended to cleanse it, rather than have been the mean of fouling it:-the rain water would have flowed off a well-formed road, and thereby have washed it; and would not have been arrested, in its turn, by the dust, which the waterings had collected.

I have seen the Kensington road covered, footlock or midleg deep, with puddle; and the road itself,-the inundated hard materials,-(gravel) kept in a soft "rotten" state,

*And see Mr. Middleton's account of other roads in Middlesex; p. 119, aforegoing.

state, week after week perhaps, during the summer months: a circumstance which would, I think, be difficult to explain in any other way, than that which is here suggested.

Far be it from my intention to convey, in those remarks, any desire to suppress, altogether, the watering of roads. My aim has been merely that of endeavoring to trace its effect.

On Turnpike Trusts.-P. 62. "For several years past, the turnpike roads of this county have been under the direction of treasurers, who are trustees of the roads, and are appointed by the trust at large, at a meeting held for that purpose. A knowledge of the fundamental prinples of making roads is not deemed at all necessary to the election of such treasurers, but they are generally some respectable gentlemen in business, (if near town) and whither perhaps they go every day. Each appoints some inferior tradesman of the district in which he lives to be the surveyor, and who may be a carpenter, a bricklayer, or any other profession as it may happen; so that without a particle of knowledge in the maintenance and principles of roads on either side, is the expenditure of hundreds of pounds committed to the day labourers, who are for the most part old and decrepid, and who being generally left to themselves, take every advantage: and as the surveyor does not know how much should be done, he is easily imposed upon by the men; and as the money does not come out of his pocket, it is not very material for him to give himself much trouble about it."

Parochial Surveyors of Roads.-P. 67. “With regard to the parish roads, a mixture of good and bad, as is generally the case, is every where found; as the office is elective, and passes from the one to the other every year, and among a certain class of the inhabitants, it too frequently happens, that as the ideas of the successor do not correspond with those of his predecessor, so, instead of following up what he had judiciously begun, a fresh system is pursued; and thus is the money squandered away in idle and futile pursuits, instead of lowering the rates, by following wise measures. The money that is thus sunk, would generally more than pay an able surveyor, and one surveyor might superintend several parishes."-For a variety of similar remarks, see different volumes of this Abstract.

RURAL ECONOMY.

ESTATES

STATES.-P. 26. "It does not appear, that in this district the land is generally possessed by large proprietors; and its contiguity to the metropolis, as well as the salubrity of its air, may contribute in some degree to produce this effect: it will not, however, admit of a question, but that there are some very large proprietors. However, as that is no criterion, it may be taken for granted, that there are perhaps few counties where the land is possessed in a fairer proportion."

IRRIGATION.-P. 37. "It does not appear, that watering of meadows is any where practised in this county, of sufficient extent to deserve particular notice; and indeed such is the nature of the county, that very few parts of it are capable of so desirable a practice at all; that which is watered does not appear to be done according to any new system, but simply conformable to the ideas of the possessor."

The fact is-Surrey has very little calcareous water, that can be used for this purpose. The Wey collects its waters from heathlands; and the Mole from noncalcareous vale lands.-The Wandle, it is true, is calcareous-almost purely so. Its head, the "Bourn," above Croydon, rises abruptly, and periodically, in a chalk bill valley; and the rest of its waters constantly boil up, at the feet of those hills. But its course is short, and its waters are, or have been, too profitably employed in the works of manufacture to be applied, in quantity, to the purpose of agriculture. The MANAGEMENT of ESTATES. The following truisms are so tersely put, and telf so well, almost throughout, that I must not refrain,-though they are not especially applicable to the management of landed property in "the County of Surrey,"-to give them a place, in this register.

P. 58. "To ascertain the fair proportion of rent between landlord and tenant is no very easy task; it requires a person possessed with a thorough knowledge of soils, a perfect acquaintance with the qualities of stock, and with the best systems of agriculture in use, and a character that will not be warped from his duty either by the opinion of the landlord, or by the artful insinuations of the tenant, Such a man is best qualified to do justice to both; and well would it be indeed, if gentlemen setting aside their prejudices and conceits, would make that the rule of their conduct."

WOODLANDS