Form of Roads.-The width of a road must depend on its uses: if much frequented, there should be always room for two carriages to pass on the gravel: if little frequented, the gravel may be narrower, but there must be more room left on each side; yet we often see the broadest verges of grass to the broadest roads, where, in strict propriety, the breadth should be in an inverse ratio. If the gravel be wider than the traffic upon it requires, so much more labour will be necessary to preserve it neatly: yet it can never be right to put gravel in recesses that no horse or carriage can possibly reach. If a corner projects too far into the road, the driver will certainly go over it, unless prevented by some obstacle; yet it never can be right to endanger the safety by unnecessary obstacles*.
*[However obvious and self-evident this may appear when pointed out, yet such is the slowness in the progress of improvement, that a witty author observes, "although spoons have been in use two thousand years, yet it is only within our own memory that the handles have been turned the right way." In like manner, although streets have existed in London from time immemorial, yet it is within everybody's memory that the corners were first begun to be rounded off.]
