7 6 HER OES OF INVENTION AND DISCO 7ER K 



over their ground, and so dear, that the owner of a rood of ground 

 will expect ;^2o per annum for this leave. The manner of the 

 carriage is by laying rails of timber from the colliery down to 

 the river, exactly straight and parallel; and bulky carts are 

 made with four rowlets fitting these rails, whereby the carriage is 

 so easy that one horse will draw down four or five caldrons ot 

 coals, and is an immense benefit to the coal merchants." 



There is mention made of tramways as early as 1602; but 

 there is some convenience in accepting the period of two 

 centuries as the starting-point in noticing the history of rail- 

 ways. The tramways described in the above extract were of 

 wood, and it was not till the opening of the eighteenth century 

 that the wood came to be protected with iron. In the early 

 part of that century many tramways appear to have been laid 

 down to connect collieries with the ports whence the coal was 

 shipped. One of these has obtained some historical interest; 

 namely, the railway between Tranent colHery and its port of 

 Cockenzie, in East Lothian — a railway still in existence — part of 

 the embankment of which was used as a position for his cannon 

 by "Johnny Cope" in the battle of Prestonpans in 1745. In 

 the travels of St. Fond it is mentioned that coals could be 

 imported from England at Marseilles cheaper than French 

 coals of inferior quality, and the facilities for conveying coals 

 to the ports in this country, by the use of the tramways, and 

 the method of shipping direct from the waggons, is believed to 

 have had some share in bringing about this result. 



One of the earliest records of the use of iron to protect the 

 wooden trams is in connection with the ironworks at Cole- 

 brookdale, in Shropshire, subsequently celebrated for the 

 erection of the first considerable iron bridge, and where, about 

 ^760, iron plates were nailed to the wooden rails, as well to 



