Improved Locomotion. 99 



in response to the Duke's admiring exclamation at 

 witnessing arrangements so much in advance of the 

 period. The story conies to us also from living lips, 

 of how on a very stormy day, when Scorgie had reached 

 Pitmachie, long a well known coaching stage, some 

 one put to him the question, " Foo 11 ye win through 

 the Glens in sic a nicht ? " The proprietor of the 

 Caravan showed his mettle in the reply, "I'll gae 

 throu in coorse." And the saying became crystallised 

 into a local " bye word" "I'll dee't in coorse; as 

 Carrie, gaed throu the Glens." 



It was not till 1811 that regular mail coaches were 

 established between Aberdeen and Inverness. 



In the month of June, 1805, when the Inverurie 

 turnpike had been in use five years, an alternative 

 medium of communication between Aberdeen and that 

 royal burgh was established by the opening of the 

 Aberdeenshire Canal, which, at the time of its con- 

 struction, was reckoned rather a stupendous work.* 

 On the opening day the committee of management 

 " embarked" at the Inverurie bason (named Port-Elphin- 

 stone in honour of a leading promoter) in a barge 

 "handsomely decorated." They carried a gun at the 

 prow of the barge to signal their approach to the 

 delighted crowds who had assembled at different points 

 to witness the accomplished triumph of inland naviga- 

 tion. And their gaily decked vessel, " The Countess 

 of Kintore," with its living freight, having completed 

 the voyage of fifteen miles in seven and a half hours, 

 was, amid general jubilation, safely moored at the bason 

 at Aberdeen Quay. Two miles an hour or thereby 

 might do for heavy goods ; but it was clear that a speed 

 considerably less than the normal walking pace was in- 

 adequate for passenger traffic ; and thus, in the summer 

 of 1807, we find a passage boat " covered and neatly 

 fitted up for the purpose of conveying passengers and 



* For statement relative to Aberdeenshire Canal, 'see Appendix; (3). 



