ROADS. 



353 



and which seem to have a more independent control with* 

 Ollt reference to qimrter session*, as is the case in the 

 other parts of the kingdom. In taking any gcm-nd 

 view of the roads of Scotland, they may be classed 

 under three distinct heads: First, those of the southern 

 counties, which have been wholly made and maintain- 

 ed by the statute labour and the rates collected at the 

 toll-bars : Secondly, the military roads of the High* 

 lands, made by the troops on the peace establishment, 

 wholly at the expence of the public; and, thirdly, 

 the roads made under the direction of parliamentary 

 commissioners, at the joint expence of the public and 

 the landed interest of the northern counties. 

 Military It is to the formation of the two latter classes of these 

 and High- roads that we perhaps owe much of our present taste 

 land road*. f yr roa d making throughout the united kingdom. The 

 military roads had their origin in the rebellion of 171 5, 

 when it was found that the royal troops could not pe- 

 netrate farther into the Highlands than Blair in Athol 

 from the total want of roads. " The inhabitants of the 

 Highlands." says Colonel Robert Anstruther's Memo- 

 rial, included in the Parliamentary Reports, ' a hardy 

 race, accustomed from their infancy to arms, devoted 

 to their chiefs, strangers to industry, and secluded from 

 all intercourse with the rest of mankind, as well from 

 their natural situation, as by their dress and language, 

 formed a distinct people from the rest of the empire ; 

 and for ages, the government, the country, and the 

 Highlanders, suffered greatly from these distinctions/' 

 About the year 1131, General Wade was appointed, 

 with the several regiments under his command in 

 this district, to make certain roads, which should in 

 future be sufficient for the conveyance of troops and 

 military stores. The first line of road which they form- 

 ed was from Stirling, across the Grampians, to In- 

 verness, and from thence along the chain of forts, in- 

 cluding Fort George, Fort Augustus, and Fort William, 

 between the east and west seas, by which troops and 

 artillery were carried with facility into the central 

 Highlands, and thereby the disturbances of 1745 were 

 speedily suppressed. By the year 1785, the military 

 roads, including what has been termed the Galloway 

 road, from Portpatrick to the river Sark, on the confines 

 of Cumberland, extended to no fewer than about 788 

 miles, including 1011 bridges; and the light-house 

 of Port Patrick. The improvement of the northern 

 districts of Scotland became a still farther object with 

 government about the year 1 803, when a select com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons, among other objects, 

 took under its consideration the farther extension 

 of roads in the Highlands and Islands. Commis- 

 sioners were appointed by Parliament with power to 

 defray one half of the estimated expence, provided the 

 proprietors of the land advanced the remainder. In this 

 manner, by the year 1814, about 700 miles of road had 

 been made under this commission. At this period, the 

 whole of the military and more recent parliamentary 

 roads of the north, now extending to about 1200 miles, 

 were thrown into one general trust, with power to assess 

 the counties to a certain extent, the government mak- 

 ing up the balance of about L.10,000 per annum, as the 

 estimated expence of their maintenance, including 

 ferry piers, landing slips, inspection, and management. 

 Committee 1 tne history of the road department of Great Bri- 

 ef House of tain, one of the most important features of its progress 

 Commons was, the appointment of the committee on the roads and 

 on Roadi, highways of England and Wales in the year 1806. 



VOL. XVII, PART I. 



Ac. 



The reports of this committee upon wheel carriage*. Rod an* 

 and the construction of roads in general, are perhaps of Highway*, 

 the highest importance to our domestic policy ever * m ~ Y ~ m 

 made to Parliament. These reports contain a mas* of 

 information collected from men of the first comider- 

 ation for scientific and practical knowledge; among 

 whom we notice the names of Jessop, Walker, Cum- 

 ming, Edgeworth, Ward, Boswell, &c. &c. It is, 

 however, much to be wished, that the important la- 

 bours of this committee had not terminated till they 

 had proved, by actual experiment, upon the great 

 scale, many of the scientific and elegant theories 

 submitted to its consideration. By such researches, 

 our improvement in roads, and in a more perfect con* 

 struction of wheel carriages, would have been syste- 

 matically continued, till we should have realized the 

 ultimate benefits anticipated by the conclusion of the 

 committee ; namely, that no less than FIVE MiLLioKg 

 sterling might annually be saved to the public by 

 following out the improvement of our road system, 

 under the d rection of parliamentary commissioners 

 specially appointed for the highways of the king- 

 dom. 



ROAD- MAKING. 



From the historical sketch we have given of roads 

 generally, it appears surprising how slowly such im- 

 provements advance to anything like perfection in the 

 art. In illustration of this, we may take an example 

 from the military roads above alluded to. Agreeably 

 to the practice even late in the eighteenth century, roads 

 were, in most instances, carried in a direct line, without 

 much regard to the undulating surface of the country. 

 The approaches to some of the most noted passes of the 

 Highlands were so precipitous and difficult as to have 

 been familiarly termed, " Rest and be thankful," 

 " The Devil's Staircase," and the like, where stone 

 seats were actually provided for the use of the hardy 

 pedestrian. At one of these, a celebrated author having 

 inquired at his guide what could have induced the 

 gentlemen who commanded the troops on the service 

 of the military roads to put their designations upon cer- 

 tain tablets set up by the way, he facetiously replied, 

 " I know not, unless it were to afford the weary tra- 

 veller an opportunity of cursing them by name and sur- 

 name." 



Although in Road-making the Line of direction must Line of di- 

 al ways be subordinate to the Line of draught, yet the rection. 

 former is notwithstanding of importance, both as it re- 

 gards the safety of the traveller, and the trackage of the 

 load. Independently of the numerous accidents which 

 occur, from the sudden collision of carriages travelling at 

 speed upon a tortuous line of road; it were even better 

 to go up a moderate acclivity, than to introduce nume- 

 rous turns, which, to a certain extent, are not less de- 

 trimental to the effective power of the horse, than the 

 up-hill draught. Every turn in the road, which ulti- 

 mately amounts to a right angle, does in effect, sup- 

 pose the carriage to have been brought from a state of 

 motion to a state of rest, and from rest to motion again. 

 Turns, in a road where they are unavoidable, ought 

 to be formed on curves of as large a radius as the 

 situation will admit. 



In forming or laying out an approach to a mansion- 

 house, we consult our taste, and are neither deterred by 

 the elongation, nor winding direction of the road, in* 



