86 Notes and Sketches. 



This state of matters, substantially, continued for a 

 number of years with a moderate amount of success. 



A description that would apply to the state of the 

 country a very little before the date at which Duke 

 William of Cumberland passed through Aberdeen and 

 Banffshire, to fight the rebels at Culloden, is to this 

 effect " There was no road in the county of Aberdeen 

 on which wheels of any kind could be dragged ; weighty 

 burdens of every kind were of course carried on horse- 

 back." And when the county gentlemen had begun 

 to form roads in the different districts, their engineering 

 and constructive skill was not of the highest, any more 

 than the labour they could command was efficient or 

 heartily given. The Commissioners of Supply were 

 empowered by statute (1719), to call upon every house- 

 holder to give six days' work in the year toward the 

 making and maintenance of the roads. And when 

 they had decided to exact the " statute labour " more 

 rigorously, which they did soon after road reform had 

 been taken up as a practical question, they would employ 

 the precentor to read out a notice on Sunday from the 

 "lateran" immediately before the benediction; or engage 

 the bellman to utter a " scry" as the kirk " scailt," 

 whereby the people were asked to " take notice" that 

 their services were needed at such a place on such a 

 day, to work under orders of this or the other J.P. 

 at road-making. But the people did not see why the 

 roads that were good enough for their fathers should 

 not be good enough for them and they hated and 

 scamped the statute labour, so that the man's six days 

 frequently came to yield little more than one good day's 

 work ; a circumstance which ultimately led to the in- 

 voluntary labour being generally "commuted," for a 

 modified money payment. In commuting, they 

 reckoned the man's labour at 3d. a-day. Thus, his six 

 days' statutory work would amount to eighteenpence. 

 And that was the sum at which they ordinarily let him 

 off. As ninepence was paid for a road labourer with 



