The Life of Thomas Telford | Page 6

imagine what would be the effect of closing the roads,
railways, and canals of England. The country would be brought to a
dead lock, employment would be restricted in all directions, and a large
proportion of the inhabitants concentrated in the large towns must at
certain seasons inevitably perish of cold and hunger.
In the earlier periods of English history, roads were of comparatively
less consequence. While the population was thin and scattered, and
men lived by hunting and pastoral pursuits, the track across the down,
the heath, and the moor, sufficiently answered their purpose. Yet even
in those districts unencumbered with wood, where the first settlements
were made--as on the downs of Wiltshire, the moors of Devonshire,
and the wolds of Yorkshire--stone tracks were laid down by the tribes
between one village and another. We have given here, a representation
of one of those ancient trackways still existing in the neighbourhood of
Whitby, in Yorkshire;
[Image] Ancient Causeway, near Whitby.
and there are many of the same description to be met with in other parts
of England. In some districts they are called trackways or ridgeways,
being narrow causeways usually following the natural ridge of the
country, and probably serving in early times as local boundaries. On
Dartmoor they are constructed of stone blocks, irregularly laid down on
the surface of the ground, forming a rude causeway of about five or six
feet wide.
The Romans, with many other arts, first brought into England the art of
road-making. They thoroughly understood the value of good roads,
regarding them as the essential means for the maintenance of their
empire in the first instance, and of social prosperity in the next. It was

their roads, as well as their legions, that made them masters of the
world; and the pickaxe, not less than the sword, was the ensign of their
dominion. Wherever they went, they opened up the communications of
the countries they subdued, and the roads which they made were among
the best of their kind. They were skilfully laid out and solidly
constructed. For centuries after the Romans left England, their roads
continued to be the main highways of internal communication, and
their remains are to this day to be traced in many parts of the country.
Settlements were made and towns sprang up along the old "streets;"
and the numerous Stretfords, Stratfords, and towns ending' in "le-street"
--as Ardwick-le-street, in Yorkshire, and Chester-le-street, in
Durham--mostly mark the direction of these ancient lines of road.
There are also numerous Stanfords, which were so called because they
bordered the raised military roadways of the Romans, which ran direct
between their stations.
The last-mentioned peculiarity of the roads constructed by the Romans,
must have struck many observers. Level does not seem to have been of
consequence, compared with directness. This peculiarity is supposed to
have originated in an imperfect knowledge of mechanics; for the
Romans do not appear to have been acquainted with the moveable joint
in wheeled carriages. The carriage-body rested solid upon the axles,
which in four-wheeled vehicles were rigidly parallel with each other.
Being unable readily to turn a bend in the road, it has been concluded
that for this reason all the great Roman highways were constructed in
as straight lines as possible.
On the departure of the Romans from Britain, most of the roads
constructed by them were allowed to fall into decay, on which the
forest and the waste gradually resumed their dominion over them, and
the highways of England became about the worst in Europe. We find,
however, that numerous attempts were made in early times to preserve
the ancient ways and enable a communication to be maintained
between the metropolis and the rest of the country, as well as between
one market town and another.
The state of the highways may be inferred from the character of the

legislation applying to them. One of the first laws on the subject was
passed in 1285, directing that all bushes and trees along the roads
leading from one market to another should be cut down for two
hundred feet on either side, to prevent robbers lurking therein;*[1] but
nothing was proposed for amending the condition of the ways
themselves. In 1346, Edward III. authorised the first toll to be levied
for the repair of the roads leading from St. Giles's-in-the-Fields to the
village of Charing (now Charing Cross), and from the same quarter to
near Temple Bar (down Drury Lane), as well as the highway then
called Perpoole (now Gray's Inn Lane). The footway at the entrance of
Temple Bar was interrupted by thickets and bushes, and in wet weather
was almost impassable. The roads further west were so bad that when
the sovereign went to Parliament faggots were thrown into the ruts in
King-street, Westminster, to