* * * * On Saturday last the King opened
the new road out of London, to be known as the Great West Road, a name which will, in spite of the roar of engines and smell of oil, doubtless acquire the romance that, upon the Great North Road, conies down from the four-in-hand and the fly- waggon. The new tree-lined avenue of five miles is a comparatively short but immensely important one from Chiswick to the old Bath Road, avoiding Brentford, the bottle-neck abominated by motor-car drivers who are in turn abhorred by the residents. The Middlesex County Council has taken a large view of the future as well as the present, realizing, we hope, that upon its democratic shoulders have fallen the mantles of the great road-makers of the past, Julius Caesar, Napoleon or General Wade. Financially the Council has been largely helped by the Road Board Fund. The only bodies who have our com- miseration are the railway companies who, as with • municipal trams, have, as large taxpayers and ratepayers, to help to make the lash for their own backs. It is not nearly the whole truth to say that the motor-car is bringing back to the roads their pre-railroad life and importance. Not only motor-transport but the century's increase of population make the new possibilities and demands for road-communication the most portentous growth now with us. * * * *
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