A

the middle, and six inches at the sides; a dry stone wall to be built on the outside to retain the earth; to have a batter of two inches in three feet, and to rise three feet above the surface of the finished road, as a protecting parapet; to be fifteen inches thick at top, and increasing in thickness by an offset of three inches on the inside for every foot to the foundation; the top course to be set in good lime and mortar. paved channel one foot and a half wide is to be laid along both sides of the road, from top to bottom; where the road crosses Folly Lane there will be a cutting of two feet. The lane must be lowered at each side of the road, and properly levelled to an inclination of one in sixteen for the whole width of the road. The part thus broken up must be coated with six inches of broken sandstone of the best quality in the neighbourhood. Tile drains are to be laid along the side of the road for the whole width of the lane at the point of intersection.

Where the road crosses the footpath at the upper angle of the weavers' row of houses on the Allesley land, a cutting is to be made of two feet six inches; the footpath must be covered on each side, and dressed with gravel, so as to give a good and commodious passage to and from the road. Where the road crosses the Chapel Lane

there is to be four feet of filling; the lane must be embanked on each side to the height of the road, and have inclinations each way of one in sixteen, the side slopes are to be two horizontal to one perpendicular, and the top surface when finished to be twenty-one feet wide; both these side roads or lanes are to be fenced in the same manner as the main line of road, and to be coated with eight inches of broken sandstone for the width of eighteen feet, and with gravel for the width of eighteen inches on each side, to be eight inches deep where it joins the broken stone and six inches at the sides.

Where the road crosses the lane between Mr. Booth's and Mr. Carter's land, a filling is to be made of two feet nine inches. The same must be embanked up to the road on each side; to have inclinations each way of one in sixteen, and to be twenty-one feet wide on the surface, with slopes of two horizontal to one perpendicular; to be covered with five inches thick of pebbles, eighteen feet wide, and gravelled eighteen inches at each side; the gravel to be three inches thick next the broken stone, and six at the sides; no fencing will be necessary on these side roads.

S

The second Schedule referred to in and by the foregoing agreement.

Sir,

I hereby engage to execute the works of the proposed improvement of the Holyhead Road at Coventry, according to the plan, section, and specification, for the sum of ten thousand and seventy-six pounds sixteen shillings and six

Signed, sealed, and delivered by the

above-named Thomas Baylis in

the

presence of

John Macneill.

THOMAS BAYLIS.

Signed, sealed, and delivered by the

above-named John Kershaw in

the presence of

John Macneill.

JOHN KERSHAW.

Signed, sealed, and delivered by the

above-named Alexander Milne

in the presence of

John Macneill.

ALEXANDER MILNE.

CHAP. IX.

IMPROVING OLD ROADS.

MR. TELFORD gives the following account of the state of the turnpike roads, in 1819, in his evidence before the committee of the House of Commons on the highways of the kingdom :"With regard to the roads of England and Wales, they are in general very defective, both as to their direction and inclinations; they are frequently carried over hills, which might be avoided by passing along the adjacent valleys; the shape, or cross sections and drainage of the roads are quite as defective as the general directions and inclinations; there has been no attention paid to constructing good and solid foundations; the materials, whether consisting of gravel or stones, have seldom been sufficiently selected and arranged; and they lie so promiscuously upon the roads, as to render it inconvenient to travel upon them, and to promote their speedy destruction. The shape of the road or cross section of the surface is frequently hollow in the middle; the sides encumbered with great banks of road dirt, which have accumulated in