D RUDIMENTS OF THE RT OF CONSTRUCTING AND REPAIRING COMMON ROADS. BY HENRY LAW, CIVIL ENGINEER. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED I general Survey of the principal Metropolitan Roads. BY S. HUGHES, CIVIL ENGINEER. LONDON: JOHN WEALE, 59, HIGH HOLBORN. PREFACE. THE present little work would scarcely have needed a preface were it not that the Author feels some apology to be due to he public for the lengthened period which has elapsed beween the work being promised and its present publication. The cause of this delay has been the full employment of his me in his vocation, which has left him little leisure for other ursuits, and he felt that it would be best on every consideraion to delay the work until he could devote a sufficient time or its proper completion, rather than to throw it forth in a urried and imperfect form. The general survey of the metropolitan roads has been written by Mr. Samuel Hughes, ho was to have written the whole work, but was prevented om doing so by the same causes as have occasioned the delay n its publication. To that gentleman the Author is also ndebted for some useful hints upon the subject. Old Windsor, 17th April, 1850. H. L. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PRINCIPAL METROPOLITAN ROADS. WITH the view of arriving at some principles to guide us in he laying out of roads in new districts of country, I am not ware that any more instructive study could be pointed out han a brief survey of the physical features and geographical conditions which characterize the lines of the present great oads leading from the metropolis to various parts of the ingdom. It may be objected to this, that there are few districts vhich present any striking resemblance to the country surounding the metropolis; and that, consequently, rules laid down as applicable to the construction of roads in this part of England would fail in their application to other districts, and to distant countries. It may also be objected that, with the exception of those designed by the Romans, the roads of this country were not the work of any set of people possessing superior wisdom and resources to the native inhabitants, but were, in fact, gradually contrived and executed by the natives themselves, during a long course of centuries, whilst they were gradually emerging from barbarism; and were continued and mproved, step by step, in proportion to the increase of our Eowns, the spread of our commerce, and the advancement of Our intellectual resources. This latter fact would certainly lead to the conclusion that our roads, instead of being traced with reference to the physical features of the country, would often be made subservient in their direction to other features and conditions; such as the position of towns or hamlets |