[Sidenote: How to mend a road.] Me semeth, it is necessarye to shewe mine opinion, howe an hye-way shulde be amended. And fyrste and pryncypally, se that there be noo water standynge in the [Sidenote: Let no water stand on it.] hye-waye, but that it be alwaye currante and rennynge, 4 nor haue none abydynge more in one place thanne in another. And in somer, whan the water is dryed vp, than to get grauell, and to fyll vp euery lowe place, and to [Sidenote: [Fol. 56.]] make theym euen, somewhat dyscendynge or currante, 8 [Sidenote: Fill up the holes with gravel.] one waye or other; and if there be noo grauell nor stones to gette, yet fyll vp with erthe in the begynnyge of somer, that it maye be well hardened with caryage and treadynge vppon, and it shall be well 12 amended, if the water maye passe away from it; the whiche wolde be well consydered, and specially aboute [Sidenote: About London they mend roads badly, putting in earth before the gravel.] London, where as they make moche more coste than nedeth; for there they dyche theyr hye-wayes on bothe 16 sydes, and fyll vp the holowe and lowe places with erthe, and than they caste and laye grauell alofte. And whan a greatte rayne or water commeth, and synketh thorowe the grauell, and commeth to the erthe, than the erthe 20 swelleth and bolneth and waxeth softe, and with [Sidenote: Then the gravel sinks, and the road is like a quicksand.] treadynge, and specyally with caryage, the grauell synketh, and gothe downewarde as his nature and kynde requyreth, and than it is in maner of a quycke-sande, 24 that harde it is for any thynge to goo ouer. But yf they wolde make no dyche in sommertyme, whan the water is dryed vp, that a man may se all the holowe and lowe places, [Sidenote: They should use gravel only.] than to cary grauel, and fyl it vp as hygh as the other 28 knolles be; than wold it not bolne ne swell, nor be no quycke-sande, and euery ma_n_ may go beside the hie-way [Sidenote: [Fol. 56_b_.]] with theyr cariage at theyr pleasure. And this me semeth is lesse coste, and lenger wyll last with a lyttell mendynge 32 [Sidenote: This should be looked to.] whan nede requyreth. Therfore me thynketh, yf this were well loked vpon, it shuld be bothe good and necessarye for that purpose: for soo haue I seen done in other places, where as I haue ben, &c. 36