Roads and Road-making. 89 



finished in 1754. Such roads as these, made "by 

 soldiers, had a sort of special recognition as the King's 

 Highways. 



The ordinary roads continued still to be of a very 

 primitive sort. In June, 1751, at the Aberdeen 

 County Meeting, " Meldrum" produced a letter " from 

 my lady Dowager of Forbes, representing that the 

 public road 'twixt Inverury and Castle Forbes is quite 

 impassible in sevrall parts thereof, particularly that 

 part 'twixt Pittodery's dykes and Overhall, which is 

 dangerous to pass, especially with wheel carriages : 

 and that lately her ladyship's chaise had stuck there 

 and broke the graith : and therefore craving the com- 

 missioners to allow her a share of the highway money 

 for helping the road, and power to call out the country 

 people to give their-assistance : which being con- 

 sidered, the meeting thought the request of my lady 

 Forbes just and reasonable," and ordered accordingly. 

 In 1756, an Act was passed by the Aberdeenshire 

 Commissioners for making all public highways "20 

 foot in breadth, and where broader they are to be 

 kept so." Several counties, it is said, had resolved that 

 the roads should be at least twenty feet in width " over 

 and above the ditches on either side," which were to 

 be five feet. Many of the roads and highways in this 

 shire, it is added, "are represented as being very 

 narrow, and will not permit wheel carriages to pass by 

 one another, or even loaded horses with curracks and 

 creels." The roads were directed to be raised in the 

 middle so as water might run off them, or otherwise 

 they would be reported to the Lords of Justiciary " as 

 disagreeable to law, and the parishes they belonged 

 to would have to make them over again." Tenants 

 who had arable land adjacent to public roads, were 

 enjoined to make " head rigs next to the highway," 

 and to cease the abuse that prevailed of ploughing 

 across the roads. 



The date of the oldest Scotch Turnpike Act is 1750, 



